When The Doctor Needs A Doctor
by Rude and not Ginger
Summary: The Doctor get’s ill, and the only person who can look after him is Jack! When he get's worse he, along with Jack, Rose and Mickey have to travel to another planet for the cure, only currently in that world a war is taking place. TenJack Rating may go up
1. Jack’s new job

When The Doctor Needs A Doctor

Summary: The Doctor gets ill, and the only person who can look after him is Jack!

A/N: This bit is just an intro and is _very_ short; I hope you don't mind - it's just to spark people's interest.

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Intro: Jack's new job

"Jack, Jack!" Gwen called, waving a phone round in her hand. "There's someone called Rose on the phone, she say's you're old friends."

"Rose." Jack muttered, his brow furrowed; he hadn't seen her since he was brought back to life that day. He walked over and took the phone from Gwen's hand. "Thanks." He smiled at her. "Hello?"

"Hello."

"Hello … is it just me, or does this remind you of the first time we met?"

A short laugh came from Rose, but then she seemed to become serious. "I suppose we owe you an apology."

"You mean for leaving me trapped on a spaceship full of dead people and Daleks?" He replied sarcastically.

"Yeah." Rose whispered, feeling guilty. "For that. I really am sorry Jack, we thought that you were dead…"

Jack frowned. "Well, I suppose I forgive you. Not point in holding grudges. So, what do you need?"

"Er, well, the thing is… The Doctor's not very well. He was hit by some sort of alien powder and I don't have a clue what to do."

"And you expect _me_ to know? He's the Doctor!"

"Well yes I no, but you could still help… It's just that my mum has booked us a holiday for her birthday for a fortnight, and refuses to let me stay here."

Jack couldn't believe it. After all this time, Rose finally gets in touch, just to ask him to baby-sit!

"Let me get this right. I save your life, travel with you and The Doctor, help you save the world a few times, get killed helping you, get brought back just for you to leave me with no visible escape in the middle of space, don't bother to ever get in touch with me, and then ask me to baby-sit a sick Time Lord while _you_ go on holiday?!"

Silence…then. "Erm, yeah."

Jack sighed deeply, knowing he was going to regret this. "When and where?"


	2. Hi and Bye, what to do?

When The Doctor Needs A Doctor

A/N: Thank you so much Miniola, AngelsWings5, forestwife, Shrink To Be and Aqua Mage for the review's. I never thought that so many people would like this story, just over one night it had 116 hits and 4 reviews, best I've ever had, so thanks very much.

I'm sorry that I haven't updated! I promise that I won't leave it like this again.

Chapter 1: Hi and Bye, what to do?

Jack squinted his eyes against the sun, looking up at a tall apartment building that Rose had given him directions to. He glanced around him one last time and headed inside. As he reached the correct door he hesitated outside - what should he say to them? What _could_ he say? Jack breathed in a deep breath and raised his hand to knock, but just before his fist reached the door it swung open. Jack quickly brought down his hand before it knocked against the woman in the doorway. "Who are you?" She asked suspiciously, eyeing Jack up and down.

Opening his mouth to reply, he caught sight of a younger blonde and closed it, words dissolving in his mouth. He watched silently as Rose walked over. "Oh, Jack, you're here. Mum this is Jack; he's keeping an eye on The Doctor."

"Didn't image that you'd be so… Handsome." Jackie winked towards Jack, who smiled back awkwardly. "Come on in, make yourself at home."

"Thank you," Jack said, stepping in. They walked into the living room and sat down.

"Well, hello again," Rose smiled.

"Hello," Jack said with a small grin, holding up a hand in greeting.

"Hello… Maybe this is a thing for us, we have to say that three times before we can start a conversation."

Jack laughed; it sure seemed like it.

"Would you like a drink?" Jackie asked Jack, pointing towards the kitchen.

"No, thank you." He then looked around him. "So, where's The Doctor?"

"This way." Rose said quietly, looking nervous. She led Jack down the small hall and into the spare bedroom where The Doctor was laid on a bed, asleep.

Jack stirred at him dumbly "…he looks er, different."

Rose paused, wondering what he meant, then remembered that the last time Jack had seen him was before he regenerated. "After that day on Satellite Five he died, then regenerated to how he is now."

"What happened?"

"Well, after The Doctor sent me home, I managed to find a way back, using the heart of the TARDIS. I absorbed its powers, got back to the ship, killed the Daleks, brought you back and th-"

"What?" Jack interrupted, snapping his head round from The Doctor to Rose. "You brought me back, I thought it was The Doctor!"

"Nope - it was me. Of course at the time I hadn't realised. But The Doctor was going through some files on Torchwood, and there you were, plain as day, Captain Jack Harkness."

Jack wasn't sure what to say. He understood what they had done, but he could never fully forgive them for it. After a few seconds he decided to just let it go for now, and discuss it later with The Doctor.

"Rose." Jackie called from the hall. "Its time to get going, Mickey is hear to give us a lift to the airport."

Rose diverted her gaze from Jack to the door. "Comin' mum." She then turned back to Jack. "Here," She pulled a piece of paper from her pocket. "Ring this number if you need me for anything."

She went to leave the room, however before she stepped out she stopped, but didn't turn around. "I'm sorry Jack." She whispered, and she meant it. With that, she walked out.

After the front door was shut and both the Tyler's were gone, Jack sat down on the edge of the bed and watched The Doctor sleeping, waiting for him to wake up.

It took about half an hour until The Doctor woke, and Jack was still sat on the edge of the bed, waiting patiently for him to fully get rid of the sleep. As The Doctor's eyes came into focus, they rested on Jack, surprise written across them. "Jack Harkness?" He asked in disbelief.

"Hello Doctor," Jack greeted, not letting any emotion show.

"What are you doing here? ...Not that I'm not glad to see you."

"Looking after you apparently."

"Why, where's Rose?" The Doctor then looked around the room. "Wait, where am I?"

Jack's eyebrow's rose up. "You don't know what going on?"

"Should I?" The Doctor sat up in the bed. "The last thing I remember is trying to tell the Devinea Leader about flossing."

Jack looked at The Doctor strangely. "You were teaching an alien race how to floss?" He said in disbelief, then shuck his head with a chuckle. "New face, same Doctor."

"So, where is Rose?"

"On holiday."

"What! She left me to, to, _sunbathe,_ while I'm ill?"

"That's what I said."

The Doctor huffed, crossing his arms. "Well, that show's how much I'm appreciated… Still, at least you wanted to stay with me."

"What, oh no, I'd much rather be at home." Jack replied.

The Doctor looked at him for a few seconds, huffed again and glared at him. "Is that because of the whole Satellite Five thing?"

"How'd you guess?" Jack said dryly.

"Well," The Doctor started, cocked his head to the side and was raising a finger at each reason. "You don't seem as nice as you used to, you've had a creased brow since we've been talking, your voice sounds colder, you're not flirting with me, your-"

"Doctor! Shut up."

"Uh?" He lowered his fingers and looked at Jack, a seemingly confused expression on his face.

"You're rambling on again." Jack was shocked at how much he actually missed that, how much he missed being in The Doctor's company. Sure, back at Torchwood he missed him and Rose, but he never realised just how much until now. "Well, now that you're up, what do you want to do?"

"Oh, we could go back to the Devinea and bring some floss along this time." The Doctor spoke up excitedly, checking his pockets for his Sonic Screwdriver.

Jack rolled his eyes. "We're staying on Earth. And do you _really_ want to go back to a race that's made you ill? Wait, dumb question, of course you do."

"Why do we have to stay on Earth?" The Doctor sulked, pouting and ignoring the rest of what Jack said.

"Because," Jack said, as though talking to a little five year old "you're still ill, and it could get worse. Now isn't the time to be getting chased by aliens or saving some random world from destruction."

The Doctor sighed. He looked around the room, thinking. "This is Rose's flat isn't it?" Jack nodded. "Well, we could always annoy Ricky."

"It's Mickey," Jack said automatically.

"Same thing," The Doctor shrugged. "Or, a better idea, there must be loads of aliens wondering around somewhere round here!"

"Nope," was all Jack said. The Doctor's face fell.

"No aliens? How about anything strange or not quite right? Or funny looking people walking round? Or funny looking animals? Like… a Giraffe in a cap drinking sprite and playing cards!"

"Er, no." Jack replied blankly, wondering were The Doctor got all of his strange thoughts and ideas from.

"Chlivery?"

"What?"

"A race from the planet Cha." The Doctor then frowned. "They have a strange obsession with cheese for some reason."

"Well, we're not doing anything like that," Jack told him in a stern voice. "We're doing something completely twenty-first century human only."

"Fine, fine." The Doctor muttered, followed by grumbling under his breath.

"So, what will it be? We could stay here or go out."

"Hmm, twenty-first century human … We could, nah, to boring … How about, nope never mind, we'd end up being attacked by ducks …"

'_Ducks?_' Jack thought, wondering just what's going through the Time Lord's head.

"Or, we could rob a bank!"

"Let me be more specific; something legal and that _won't_ end with us dead, in danger, with anything un-Earthy or hurt."

"But if we rob a bank, it may break the illegal thing, but the rest would be okay. Besides, rules are meant to be broken," The Doctor tried to reason.

"Yes, but then we'll end up in jail." Jack argued.

"It could be alright… Well, I guess, I've never been to a jail on Earth before… No, wait, 1634, never mind."

"Were not robbing a bank and that's final!" Jack said firmly.

"Come on, we'd put all the money back, it'd just be for fun."

"Why are you even suggesting such things?! We. Are. Not. Robbing. A. Bank! And that's final!" He used a demanding tone, putting an end to the conversation.

"Fine!" The Doctor shouted back. "What do you want to do?"

Jack looked at him for a few seconds, and then grinned.

-

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- A/N: Hey, thanks for reading. The two alien races I made up, as I did the planet. I realise that the Doctor wouldn't rob a bank (well, maybe he would for fun, and give it back of course after) but I think that it'd be funny to see.

Question, do you want this to be a Doctor/Jack fic, or just keep them as friends? (Jack will still be flirting with him of course, as always, if they just remain friends)

I know that the Doctor isn't really Doctory, but he will be once he gets out around new people and places, so don't worry about that. He'll also be less whiney!


	3. Still Friends

When The Doctor Needs A Doctor

Thank you everyone for the reviews. Sorry about taking so long in updating, pulse I had writers block, sorry! I've for some reason Fanfic wouldn't let me had it done for a while, but then Fanfic wouldn't work for me, it kept on coming up as page cannot be displayed. This chapter really isn't my best, but I just wanted to get something up.

Chapter 2: Still Friends

"Just take it easy," Jack instructed as The Doctor made his way out of the bedroom, Jack following a few steps behind.

The Doctor mumbled something under his breath, Jack didn't hear quite what, but he did hear the words 'Might…well…my…mum'. The Doctor would never admit it, but getting up from the bed caused a wave of dizziness to overtake him for a few seconds.

Walking into the living room they both grabbed their coats and pulled them on. "So," The Doctor asked cheerfully. "Where to?"

"You'll see," Jack grinned as he guided The Doctor to and out of the door. Jack locked it behind them and the pair made their way down onto the estate, keeping to a slow pace so not to wear out The Doctor in his condition.

Now that they were out in the sun, Jack realised just how bad his old travelling companion really was; his face had taken on a grey colour, his hair was falling about his face in an un-kept way and his brown eyes were circled in black bags. However, Jack chose not to comment, as he knew how The Doctor felt about not being in perfect health, in complete control over what he does and what happens to him. So the odd pair of an alien and an immortal man from the 51st Century continued in a moderately comfortable silence down an ordinary London estate.

Not knowing his way around London very well, Jack lead The Doctor all over, looking for a place that appealed to him. It was another forty minutes until Jack stopped outside a shabby looking building in a run down area. If The Doctor hadn't been so exhausted from all of the walking, which had really taken it out of him, he would be complaining, but, as he felt ready to just fall over and lay on the street, he kept his mouth closed and followed Jack in.

Jack opened the building's old, shabby door, wondering why The Doctor was so quiet; usually he loved to hear the sound of his own voice. He turned to look at the Time Lord, and was shocked to see the state of him - he was breathing heavily, sweat was running down his forehead and he looked greyer than ever. Feeling guilty for not keeping a closer eye on him Jack ushered The Doctor in. "Geez, you look awful."

"Thanks," The Doctor said sarcastically. He then looked around the place - a bar, and not a very clean one either he noticed. The place was covered in dirt, so much that he couldn't even tell the colour of the floor. Most of the people sat around were in the shadows, or had their faces covered from sight.

Jack slid past The Doctor and headed for the bar, then waved him over. "Come on Doc, get a pint down ya." Jack shouted over. "It'll do you the world of good."

The Doctor walked over as Jack ordered two beers, then took a stool next to him. "This better not be a plot to get me drunk so I'll have sex with you." He warned, taking his beer.

"Of course not," Jack grinned cheekily. "Why'd I have to get you drunk for that?"

"Keep dreamin'," The Doctor muttered, but couldn't keep a small grin from creeping up onto his face.

"Every night." Jack winked flirtatiously.

"Well, can't say I blame you," The Doctor replied, having fun. "I'd fancy me too if I was you - or anybody else for that matter." He took a long drink. "Ugh, these humans really need to make nicer drinks; look at this: it's a funny colour, tastes horrible, and it takes ages for it to have even the slightest effect… not that I drink a lot, because really I don't, quite awful actually, and I'm being rude again aren't I?"

Jack just chuckled and shook his head. "Come on Doctor, admit it, you'd love to get in bed with me." The ex-con man smirked and had a drink. "Maybe we could wait till Rose gets back, she has a great ass."

"Watch it Captain." The Doctor warned.

Jack raised his hands in defence. "Just a suggestion, besides, she'd love getting two hot guy's at the same time."

"One hot guy," The Doctor corrected. "And one 51st Century, sex obsessed, conning, big headed, arrogant, annoying flirt."

"Oh, that hurt," Jack faked, putting a hand over his heart.

The Doctor snorted, had another drink and put in down on the bar. "You just keep on telling yourself that, Jack."

"Oh, I know it Doc," He grinned. "Besides I- are you okay?" He cut off, jumping to his feet as The Doctor turned a funny shade of green and clasped his hand to his throat, as though he was having trouble breathing.

"I-I d-don't think I s-should be d-drinking," The Time Lord gasped, trying to gulp in as much air as possible. "W-water."

In a second Jack had jumped over the bar and was filling a glass with fresh water. "Hey, what the fuck do you think you're doing?" The bar tender growled. "Get from behind my fuckin' bar."

Jack handed the water to The Doctor, and then turned to glare at the large beefy man. He was unshaven, with ripped clothes and bloodshot eyes. "Can't you see he's chocking you moron?" Jack argued.

"Well, that'll cost you - water ain't free, so pay up, now, or else."

"Or else what?" Jack challenged, reading for a fight.

The bar tender threw a punch at Jack, but he was very sloppy and Jack had no problem dodging it. What he didn't count on however was for the fist he'd ducked to fly past him, and hit The Doctor right in his chest. The force knocked the Time Lord from his stool and he landed heavily with a thud. As he's still having trouble breathing, that didn't help at all and The Doctor groaned from the floor.

Jack quickly hoped back over the bar and dropped to his knees besides his friend and helped him into a sitting position. "You okay?" The Doctor got his breathing back under control, shook his head to clear it, then stood up. The water had really helped too. He then turned to the bar tender and raised his eyebrows.

"Now, I know that that wasn't on purpose, so if you'd just apologise, I'll let you off," he said seriously, keeping eye contact with the large man.

The bar tender laughed, looking over The Doctor's skinny frame. "Yeah, and what are you gonna do about it?" He taunted.

"Last chance." The Doctor warned, ignoring his statement.

"Bite me."

With that he drew back his fist, and punched the bar tender dead in the centre of his face, a loud crack was heard followed by a howl of pain as the bar tender clutched his hand's to his nose, which was poring with blood. "I warned you," The Doctor told him, nonchalantly.

The other people in the bar had looked over in interest when The Doctor had been punched off of his chair, now some sniggered, but most just turned back to what they had been doing, as if nothing had happened.

As the bar tender ran to find something to cover his nose with, Jack finished his drink in a calm manner, then they headed out. As soon as the door shut behind them, Jack burst out laughing. "Did you see his face? He never expected that."

The Doctor didn't feel quite as good as Jack about breaking the man's nose, but he couldn't help grinning upon hearing Jack's laughter. It'd been so long, The Doctor really hadn't realised how much he'd missed Jack and his strange sense of humour.

"Are you alright now though?" The ex-con man said seriously. "You looked like you were gonna faint in there."

"Don't worry about me," The Doctor smiled. "Just a bit of sickness. If I can defeat Daleks, I'll get over this."

"Are you sure, I mean do you want to go back to Rose's?"

"Really I'm fine." He insisted. "So, what should we do next?"

Jack shrugged lightly. "Why don't you choose?"

"Me? Well, er, I don't know. What do humans do?" The Doctor asked, running his hand threw the back of his hair, thinking, a habit he'd picked up when he regenerated into his tenth form.

"Let's think. Twenty-first Century humans," Jack paused, thinking hard. And he came up with… "No idea. What does Rose do?"

The Doctor thought for a few minutes, trying to remember the stuff she'd talked about on this planet. "Well, she goes shopping mostly. There's that, erm, that thing where people are on a big flat screen doing strange things or 'saving' the world… a cinema! Or staring at a tree where some guy who stole from rich people lived. I went with her there once, extremely boring. It was much better when he was alive; I remember once when he and I served in the Crusades - well, he served; I was just along for the ride. Nice man really, apart from when he captured someone he really didn't like, then he beheaded them. Really not a pretty sight."

"Okay..." Jack said, raising an eyebrow. "Well, I really don't want to go shopping, plus it's to late, it'll all be closed. And I've never been to a cinema and I'm guessing you haven't either, so we wouldn't know what to do … so, what else is there?"

"But I want to go to the cinema," The Time Lord told him. "Its great how humans have managed to project themselves on a screen for the whole world to see, yet are still unable to communicate via hologram or something close to it."

000

Half an hour later the pair walked into an Odeon cinema and looked around them, not sure what to do. The room was large; to their right and left many people were queuing up, directly in front of them was a stand selling all sorts of drinks and snacks. Around the rest of the walls were doors and a large staircase. The whole room is painted in various shades of purple. "What do we do now?" The Doctor whispered in Jack's ear.

Jack looked around him - maybe they were meant to queue too? He looked back to the entrance, to see what other people did when they walked in. Most did join the queue, but a few went over to a door, shown a man in a red tux a small peace of paper, which he then ripped halfway down the middle, and entered the room. "I think we have to queue."

"Aww, that's boring." But never the less, they joined the line of people on their right.

It wasn't until ten minutes later, when they were almost at the front when The Doctor had a thought. "Jack. Do you have any Earth money?"

Surprised they both looked at each other. "Well I had a bit of change, but that went on the drinks." Jack told him, realizing only now.

Just then the person in front moved and it was there turn. "Great." The Doctor muted, but just decided to go along with it; he'd be able to think of something within the next few seconds. "Hello." He smiled.

The lady just gave a grunt. "What will it be?"

"Actually, I'm not really sure what's on. What is there?"

The lady sighed - after all that time queuing, he should have picked something. Not bothering to tell him she just pointed to a screen behind her, showing the names of the films:

Bridge To Terabithia

Next

Goya's Ghost

Reno 911!: Miami

The Reaping

Spider-Man 3 and many more.

"Spider-man?" The Doctor questioned at the odd name. "What, is it something like a Racnoss?"

"A what?" The lady asked, giving the Time Lord a weird look, which he just chose to ignore.

"I want to see Bridge To Terabithia," He informed Jack.

"What, no way, it sounds like some kiddies film," Jack scoffed. "What about Goya's Ghost, sounds good."

"I've seen plenty of ghosts in my life thanks." The Doctor said. "How about the one about the Racnoss?"

Jack rolled his eyes. "Doctor, it won't be a Racnoss, these people don't know what one is," Jack then turned to the lady, who by now was shooting them weary looks, properly thinking there mad. "Two tickets for Spider-man 3 please."

The lady handed them over there tickets hurriedly. "That'll be £9.60."

"£9.60?" The Doctor questioned, acting as though he'd just been insulted. "You really expect us to carry around money? We shall send someone to pay later." At this he pulled out his psychic paper and shoved it in her face.

The women seemed completely stumped for a few seconds. "Oh, sir, I-I'm sorry, I-I didn't realise. P-Please, go right in. Up the stairs onto the first floor and room 16."

The Doctor gave her a bright smile, put his psychic paper away and the pair took their tickets.

As they were making their way upstairs, Jack questioned The Doctor. "Who does she think you are?"

"Not sure," The Doctor replied. "Someone important." He dug around in his pocket, pulled out the paper once again and took a look. "Ah, Prince of Denmark apparently." He grinned, looking amused.

Jack laughed and looked him over. "Well, you're hardly dressed like royalty."

"Well, I am according to the Leamoneus race." He shrugged. "Rose and I went there a few months ago… They made a statue of me out of broccoli. Afterwards I asked them to make a statue of Rose using turnips, but they didn't know what they were, so instead they used garden peas."

Jack raised his eyebrows, but decided it was best not to comment.

They got to room 16, had their tickets ripped, then made their way in. "Where are we meant to sit?"

Jack looked at his ticket, on it read G14, he then checked The Doctor's - G15. Looking at the side chairs he saw that it was alphabetical, and each seat had their own number. He told The Doctor and they set off for their seats, somewhere in the middle.

"Haha!" The Doctor laughed. "Genius, alphabetical seats, so simple yet brilliant. I _love _the crazy things humans come up with."

They sat down just as the adverts began to play. The Doctor seemed quite happy to sit, laugh and make comments on the adverts being shown, finding them remarkable. "These people have something for everything. Granted, not very high tech, really lacking in intelligence, but look how they're getting there. Look! A rubber duck! I've _never _been anywhere else that makes rubber ducks. I mean some other planets have ducks, but not yellow rubber ones."

Jack sighed and shook his head, but by now a lot of people around them were giving them strange looks, and a young women sat next to The Doctor seemed to be asking her friend to swap seats with her.

Around fifteen minutes later the adverts ended and the lights went out. Both Jack and The Doctor jumped slightly at this, the first thought springing to mind was 'W_e're under attack!_' But a few seconds later, when nobody seemed to be panicking, they settled down, realising that it was supposed to happen.

Twenty minutes into the movie both thought the whole Spider-man thing strange, but enjoyable too. "Ah, humans," The Doctor said again, laughing, as Spider-man swung round on webs shot from his wrists.

The Doctor was happily sat watching, when something hit the back of his head. He spun round in his seat and looked around, after a few seconds he spotted a little kid a few rows up, looking at him with popcorn in his hand. The Doctor glared, picked up the piece of food, stuck his tongue out at him and launched it back, hitting the boy on his forehead. In revenge the boy threw a handful at The Doctor, who ducked out of the line of fire in time. He picked up the pieces and threw them back at the boy. The Doctor didn't mean it to, but one of the pieces hit the boy in the eye, which turned it watery, and in turn the boy cried to his mother.

Horrified of being slapped by another person's mother The Doctor quickly spun back round and leaned down in his chair, out of view.

Jack had noticed The Doctor ducking down and looked at him. "What are you doing?"

The Doctor pointed in the boys direction, Jack looked round, gathering what had happened. "You're over nine hundred years old, a Time Lord, and you're scared of a human women in her thirties? Honestly Doc, you get really strange when it comes to humans," He sniggered. But before he could say anything else, a chorus of "Sh!"'s rang out from people, wanting him to shut up. Insulted, Jack glared, folded his arms and sat moodily in his seat.

An hour later, the film was over and people began to leave. Jack stayed sitting with The Doctor until the boy and his mother were gone. Jack played the lookout for this, and when he told The Doctor that the cost was clear, the Time Lord poked his head halfway above the seat in front, so only his eyes upwards was showing. After he'd scanned the room he stood up straight, brushed himself off and confidently strode out with Jack.

"So how come you can fight big, hairy, mean looking men, but not a women then Doc?" Jack asked with a cheeky grin.

"Women are terrifying when they're angry." The Doctor said, as though Jack was insane not to have realised that. "They hit you, and throw things at you, and shout and kick you out of bed in the middle of the night just to annoy you."

"You sound like your talking from experience there Doc; watch it, people might actually might think you've got a social life." Jack joked.

"Oh, I had a wife once."

"What?" Jack asked in shock.

"So, we should probably get back to Rose's now." He changed the subject, ignoring Jack's exclamation and set off down the stairs.

Jack stood where he was for a few seconds in shock. '_The Doctor was married?_' After a few seconds he got back his senses and went after The Doctor. He wanted to ask more about it, but knew better than to pry.

On the way back to Rose's, Jack couldn't help but notice The Doctor's change in mood. The bounce had left his step, and the cheeky grin was replaced by a frown.

As they opened the door and stepped in, the phone began to ring. The Doctor shrugged off his coat, then went and sat down, as though he couldn't even hear the ringing. The colour also seemed to have left his face white and he once again looked very ill.

Jack glanced at The Doctor with worry, and then picked up the phone. "Hello? Oh, hey Rose."

-

- A/N: There you go, finely its up after all this time. The next chapter will be more serious, I just did this to really show that The Doctor and Jack are still good with each other and seem to be bonding quickly.

Oh, and as you might have guessed, slash won, so you can expect that in later chapters.

My cat had kittens yesterday (May 7) and there soooo cute! Four of them!


	4. My Personal Bad Wolf Problem

When The Doctor Needs A Doctor

Thanks for the reviews!

There's not too much going on in this chapter, soz, I just wanted to get all of the 'need to know' stuff out of the way. I promise the next chapter will have more excitement in it.

Chapter 3: My Personal Bad Wolf Problem

"Hey, we've just landed at Lanzarote Airport in La Palma. How's The Doctor?" Rose asked.

Jack once again looked at The Doctor's pale face, but he didn't want to make Rose worry and spoil her holiday. "He seems fine," Jack lied.

"Good, well make sure he gets lots of rest, and don't be dragging him all over London," Rose warned.

'_Bit late for that.'_ Jack thought to himself. "Don't you think I know that?" He said out loud to Rose. "What do you think I'm gonna do, take him out drinking or something? I'm not that dumb," Somewhere off to his side Jack heard a snort.

"You know I didn't mean it like that Jack," Rose sighed. "I just know what your like is all."

"Well, no need to worry, you just have a good time."

"Alright. Thanks again Jack for looking after him," Rose said gratefully. "Listen, the luggage is comin', I've gotta go but I'll ring again tomorrow. See ya, and tell The Doctor hi. Bye!"

The line went dead and Jack put the phone back. "Rose says 'hi'." He sat down next to The Doctor on the sofa and looked at him straight in the face.

"Didn't she want to talk to me?"

"Luggage."

"Oh."

"I can't die."

"What?" The Doctor asked, surprised by the sudden change in conversation, not realising what exactly Jack had just said.

"I can't die," He repeated clearly.

The Doctor looked at him in curiosity. "What do you mean?"

Jack shrugged lightly. "Well, I've been shot multiple times, killed by aliens…but I just keep on coming back."

"Well, that's odd, an immortal human. Have you tried jumping in front of a train?" He joked.

"Er, no, I'm guessing being decapitated or anything of the sort _would _be the end."

"Well, there's got to be a reason, right?" The Doctor said, turning serious.

"I'm guessing it's got something to do with Rose bringing me back," Jack shrugged. "There's this other weird thing to, if people are unconscious or dying, I can help them. There was this one girl, she had an alien inside of her, but I saved her with a kiss. I'm not sure what it is, but it's a gold…thing. Or - I really am that good of a kisser," He grinned. "Care to find out first hand?"

The Doctor ignored his last statement, and sat thinking for a few seconds. "Why does this sound familiar? Why? It pieces together, but what is it?" He stood and began pacing, running his hand threw his hair and making it stick out at odd angles. "That's it!" He shouted, causing Jack to jump. "Bad Wolf. When Rose brought you back, it wasn't just life she gave you - it was the Bad Wolf itself!"

"What?" Jack interrupted. "I'm not following. Bad Wolf, that's just words that we saw."

The Doctor shook his head, bouncing up and down, unable to keep still. "It wasn't - the Bad Wolf was a message to itself. Don't you get it Jack? Rose was, _is_, Bad Wolf. This whole time it's been inside her. To get back to me she looked into the heart of the TARDIS, and it triggered it. Using the Bad Wolf she killed all of the Daleks. But you…she wanted you alive, and so she put some of the Bad Wolf inside you. That's what's keeping you alive. Rose wanted you to live, and so you are. Forever…"

Jack sat, trying to take it all in. "So I've got this Bad Wolf thing inside of me. What is it exactly?"

The Doctor gave him a bright grin. "No idea. But it's powerful, extremely powerful. Brilliantly powerful in fact!"

"So is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Jack wanted to know.

"I'm not sure." The Doctor answered truthfully. "But that's another interesting thing, a golden light when waking people. Back on Satellite Five, the power was killing Rose and so I took it from her with a kiss. When I did that, a golden light left her and went into me. But no, that was the TARDIS, not Bad Wolf. Which can only mean one thing."

"…What?"

"Its not only the Bad Wolf you have inside you, but also a little of the TARDIS."

"Whoa, okay, to much information for the minute. So I really am immortal?"

"Looks like," The Doctor grinned brightly. "Just wait another 100 years, you won't have hardly changed. And as an old saying back on Gallifrey went, life begins at 750."

Jack didn't seem to be listening to him now; he was too caught up in what he'd just learned. "So I'll really have to go on and on… Watching everyone around me grow old and die." It wasn't a question and The Doctor knew it.

"That's the curse which comes with it." The Doctor's face fell, feeling sorrow for his friend. "But…"

Jack looked up at The Doctor again when he trailed off. "But what?" He encouraged the Time Lord to continue.

The Doctor shrugged lightly, not sure if he should say it, if Jack would want to. "You could always come with me…" Ever since the Time War, The Doctor had wished for a companion who could always travel with him. Like he'd once told Rose, she could spend all of her life with him, but he couldn't spend his with her. It hurt so much to lose a friend, to watch them grow old and die. Humans have such short life spans. But with Jack, that'd be so much different. The Doctor wouldn't have to watch Jack die.

"Go with you? For the rest of time?" Jack said in shock.

"Well you don't have to, I just thought that, you know, maybe, you'd like to..." The Doctor trailed off, not quite meeting Jack's eyes.

Jack gave The Doctor an amused grin. "I didn't mean it like that." He then pulled a joyful face and gave a loud, fake sniff. "I never new how much you cared for me."

The Doctor rolled his eyes but smiled never the less. "Good, well now that's sorted, what can we do for the next fortnight?"

"Don't look at me, I've no – wait, Rose!" Jack jumped up from the sofa and joined The Doctor. "If the Bad Wolf is keeping me alive, it'll keep Rose alive too, right?"

The Doctor sighed and shook his head sadly. "I highly doubt it. The Bad Wolf in you is solely there to give you life - Rose somehow bent it for that purpose. The Bad Wolf inside of her serves a different reason."

Jack and The Doctor sat back down, the former wishing he hadn't mentioned it. "So," he said, breaking the silence they'd fallen into. "Tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow. Well, what have you been doing whilst on Earth?"

"Fighting aliens."

"I mean in your spare time."

"Er, saving the world."

"But what _else,_ there must be something you do for fun."

"Get shot by my employee?"

"Geez, and you say _I_ have no social life. At least I get out, meet new species," The Doctor laughed, giving Jack a goofy grin.

"Yeah, well I don't have a TARDIS do I? And I don't trust any aliens on Earth… Except for you."

"Never trust a Venusian Shanghorn with a Perigosto stick." The Doctor grinned wide, flashing his teeth.

Jack raised his eyebrows, amused. "I have no idea what that means, but okay."

"So, you've been working at Torchwood, right? Why don't we visit? You're probably missing loads of work," suggested The Doctor with a shrug.

"I'm not sure you'll really want to, being alien and all." The ex-con warned.

"I'll be fine. They work for you, so you can order them not to lock me up," He replied, reasonably.

"Maybe." Jack said, not sounding very confident about the idea. It wasn't really his team; it was more the fact of other Torchwoods, any higher up, finding out. They wouldn't be happy if he had the last of Time Lords, and just let him walk away. "Still, we've got 'til tomorrow to decide. Why don't we just go to bed for now? I still need to get it through my head that I'm never gonna die."

"Good idea. I'll probably feel better in the morning anyway. Night Jack."

"Yeah, night."

They both left the living room, Jack going into the spare room, and The Doctor back into Rose's. Both had a lot to think about, now that Jack was immortal.


	5. Scares the Staazula out of me

When The Doctor Needs A Doctor

Didn't Russell T. Davies wants say that The Doctor has to have a male/male kiss every series finale? Season 1, Jack, 2, he kissed Mickey on the head, so 3, more than likely Jack! And where Jack is concerned it'll be more than a kiss on the head! God I hope so.

Thanks for the great reviews, I'd say I'm doing good for my first Doctor Who fic, lol. Just to let you know, 'life begins at 750' and 'Never trust a venusian shanghorn with a perigosto stick' is actually saying's from Gallifrey, I've been doing research on it. :P

Beta – the ever great and wonderful I Shot The Sheriff

Chapter 4: Scares the Staazula out of me

Very suddenly Jack shot awake, his eyes flying open, head raised slightly, as though listening for something. But what was it? He couldn't remember what had just awoken him so suddenly. He laid there in an alert posture for a few seconds, then he heard it again. A scream! Quick as the wind, Jack had thrown the covers off of his boxer-clad body and was out of the bedroom. He ran the short distance of the dimly lit corridor, vaguely noticing that it was early morning, judging by the way a golden shimmer was slowly creeping up the wall. He heard the scream again and threw open the door leading to Rose's room. The first thing Jack saw was The Doctor thrashing around on the bed, his face etched in pain. He ran forwards and knelt besides the bed, The Doctor seemed to be asleep - how Jack had no idea, but he was. "Doctor." He called gently, reaching out to grasp his hand. "Doctor, come on, wake up." The Doctor continued to jerk wildly, pulling his hand out of Jack's in the process. "Listen to me Doctor, you've got to wake up." Jack was getting urgent now. He put a hand to The Doctor's face, but the Time Lord once again screamed and began to thrash more violently. Jack withdrew his hand as though electrocuted, not sure what he should do. If he didn't move soon, The Doctor was going to hurt himself. Jack stood, leaned over the bed and pinned The Doctor down, arms by his side. Jack struggled to keep him down, having to use all of his body weight to do so, but still The Doctor was dangerously close to throwing him off. The Doctor let out another scream, this one louder than the others, full of distress. Jack began to speak calmly, trying to get his friend to relax. After a few minutes of this, The Doctor began to stop his frantic movements, his muscles relaxing. Jack waited until The Doctor was completely still before letting go of him. A few seconds later, The Doctor's eyes opened, and he stared up at the dark haired man, his eyes reflecting pain.

The Doctor gasped, shooting into a sitting position, his hands flying to his abdomen and clutching there as an awful pain raced through him. "Jack, I-I think I'm getting worse." He wheezed between sharp jabs of affliction.

"Shit." Jack muttered to himself. "What can I do? Is there anything you need?" He was worried; never had he seen The Doctor like this before. He was always in control of a situation, always active and ready for anything. Seeing him like this scared Jack, more than he'd ever admit.

The pain worsened, and The Doctor couldn't help but lean over in agony, gulping in air as best as he could. "N-no." He panted roughly. "I-it's an a-alien inf-flicted illness. Earth m-medicine will do no g-good."

"There's got to be something," Jack half shouted, angry with himself because he was unable to help his friend.

"Wh-where can I…Jack I do-don't feel, I want…" The Doctor was speaking softly; talking hurting him too much. It felt like the acid in his stomach was spilling out and eating away at his insides, his throat was on fire and his head was heavy and spinning.

Getting more and more worried by the second, Jack began to rub The Doctor's back soothingly, franticly thinking about what he could do. No way could he just leave The Doctor here like this, but where could he take a sick alien? 'Torchwood,' Jack muttered to himself. He didn't like the idea, and really didn't want to do this, but he had no other choice. There wasn't another option available.

He stayed with The Doctor for the next few minutes, until he'd begun to calm down, enough for him to lie back down on the bed. "I'll be back in a few minutes," He promised, then slowly stood, looked at the Time Lord for a few more seconds and left the room.

He grabbed the phone and glanced at the clock. 6:12, he hoped there'd be someone in. Quickly dialling the number Jack only had to wait three rings before a familiar voice spoke. "Torchwood, how may I help?"

"Ianto," Jack said with relief. Good old Ianto, always there before everyone else and after they'd all gone home.

"Jack is that you? Are you okay?" He asked, feeling a little worried.

"I'm fine Ianto, but the person I'm with isn't. Listen, I need you to call Owen now, I don't care what he's doing, I don't care if he's asleep, just tell him to get all of his medicine, including alien medicine, and get down here _now_," He ordered, leaving no room for argument.

Sensing the urgency in the other man's voice, Ianto nodded, even though Jack couldn't see it. "Right away sir, but it'll take him a while to make it to London."

"So ring him now!" Jack snapped.

"Of course, bye sir."

With that the line went dead. Jack sighed and put the phone back. He hadn't meant to snap at Ianto, but the worry made him irritable. Deciding that he'd apologise later, Jack went back into the bedroom to sit with The Doctor.

000

Owen woke with a groan at the sound of his phone. "Bloody brilliant," he muttered, rubbing his hand over is face in an attempt to stay awake. "This'd better be important," he murmured before picking up the phone. "Hello?" Came his yawned greeting.

"Owen, its Ianto, Jack's just rang, he say's you've got to get to London now, with all of your medicine, alien included."

"London? Has he lost it? It's quarter past six in the bloody morning! Tell him to ring again around ten." Owen snapped, ready to hang up.

At the other end of the line Ianto sighed - he'd been expecting that answer. "Its Jack's orders, and he seems pretty pissed, so you'd better do it. I gather that it's a matter of urgency."

With a deep sigh to himself Owen nodded his head, in a way that showed he didn't want to, but would. "Alright. I'll be over to get my stuff. And this had better be for a good reason." He hung up the phone without a goodbye and made his way to the shower, grumbling the whole way.

Not at all put off by Owen's usual morning complaining, Ianto went back to his work, wondering just what Jack was up to, and why he needed alien medicine. Before he'd left, all he said was that he was going to see an old friend; when asked, he didn't elaborate on that.

An hour later, Ianto looked up at the sound of the hub door opening, expecting to see Owen, but instead Gwen walked in. "Hey Ianto." She greeted with a smile.

Ianto gave a smile in return.

"Anything going on?" She asked with mild interest.

"Well Jack rang an hour ago, wanting Owen down in London." He shrugged. "I have no idea why, but he wanted a lot of medicine."

Gwen frowned at this information. "Well he's alright isn't he?"

"Yes, it's that friend he went to see." Ianto informed her, but was distracted from saying anything more as the hub door once again opened and Owen stepped in.

He gave a croaked greeting to them, still looking half asleep and went to get his stuff, carrying a large rucksack with him to put it all in. Ten minutes later he re-emerged with a yawn, the rucksack over his shoulder. "Well, I'd better be off then." He said, walking towards the exit.

"Wait!" Gwen called. "Maybe I should go with you."

Owen turned to her and raised his eyebrows. "I do know how to get to London on my own thanks."

000

Back in London on the Powell Estate, The Doctor had calmed down, and for now was feeling much better. He and Jack were sat on the sofa in the living room, eating cereal.

Jack had informed him that Owen was on his way down, to which The Doctor complained loudly, saying that he was fine now and didn't need medical attention. Jack of course ignored this, and paid to heed to it.

As he finished his food The Doctor looked over to Jack. "So, where are we going to go today, until that guy of yours gets here?"

"Nowhere," Jack answered, not even glancing at him.

"Nowhere?" The Doctor repeated, not expecting that.

"Nope, you're ill, you're staying in," Jack told him in a stern voice, and then resisted the urge to shudder when he realized just how much he sounded like someone's mother.

"Aww, but that's boring," The Doctor complained, too used to having all sorts of wild adventures to just sit around a flat.

"Well," Jack gave him a suggestive grin. "We could always wait in the bedroom, and see if we can manage to find someway of entertaining ourselves."

The Doctor suddenly found himself wanting to do something completely out of character. A smile creeping onto his face, The Doctor slowly got up and stepped the few feet towards Jack. The grin still on his face he sat down, on Jack's lap.

Jack gave a small, sharp intake of breath, not having expected that. He watched with held breath as The Doctor leaned forwards, and paused, millimetres from his lips. Jack stared at the brown eyes in front of his and licked his lips, holding onto The Doctor's waist.

Slowly The Doctor bent his head just a little further. However, his head went to the side and his lips became level with Jack's ear, his hot breath making Jack flush lightly. Quietly The Doctor whispered in his ear, "Sorry baby, I'm ill remember." He pulled back quickly, a large grin on his face, feeling rather proud of himself.

Jack could only splutter as The Doctor stood, picked up his bowl, and took it into the kitchen. As Jack was trying to get his head round what had just happened, The Doctor was laughing away, picturing Jack's face when he said that.

"Hell no is he getting away with that," Jack said to himself. He stood and made his way into the kitchen. The Doctor looked up as he entered and gave the man a large cocky smile, but before he could say a word Jack was in front of him, slid a hand round the back of his head, and kissed him.

It was only lips; Jack bent his head slightly to the side and pushed The Doctor's back against the counter, moving his lips rhythmically against The Doctor's. After only a few seconds Jack pulled away. "Never try to out-flirt me Doc, you know I'll just end up getting my way."

The Doctor felt his cheeks redden as he tried to find words. For the first time in his over 900-year life, he was completely speechless. Him, _speechless_! He watched, lost for words as Jack grinned and made his way back to the living room.

Jack had kissed him before, on Satellite Five, but it was nothing like that. Then it was just as a friend, a friend saying goodbye, but _that_, that, well, The Doctor wasn't sure what that was. And he didn't like not knowing. He presumed that it was Jack just being Jack; he hoped it was to. In no way did he want to wind up in a relationship, he'd done that before, now look at them – all either dead or gone. And he was left completely alone. He didn't want to, couldn't, do that again. Still, it was most likely just Jack being his usual self.

In the living room Jack sat back down with a grin; dammit The Doctor was a good kisser. He'd enjoyed that to, more than he'd care to admit. Jack had never been lucky when it came to love, and so he always avoided it. The few times he had opened up his heart, he just came away miserable. That's why he liked a one-night stand, or just someone for a short time before moving on. Still, there was nothing to worry about; he knew The Doctor felt the same way, if not more unwilling.

And so, in the two separate rooms, both came to the same conclusion at the same time - "I'll just pretend that it never happened."

000

Three hours later, Jack and The Doctor were watching TV (oh so human), when a knock came at the door. Figuring it'll be Owen Jack went to get it. As expected, Owen walked in a few seconds later, holding a large black rucksack, not alone Jack saw, as Gwen closely followed him. "This had better be worth the journey," Owen warned, shifting the bag in his hand. "You got me up at quarter past six in the bloody morning, made me drive all the way down here, and, to top it off Gwen insisted on coming, so I had to listen to her nag all the way."

"I was not nagging," Gwen defended with a snap, then turned a smiling face to her boss. "Hey Jack."

Laughing slightly Jack greeted them, and led them into the living room where The Doctor peered at them curiously. "Hello," He smiled, "I'm The Doctor."

Gwen smiled back and gave a wave; Owen just grunted. "So I take it you're ill." He sighed, and added to himself in a low voice, "Doesn't look urgent to me, bloody Jack." He dropped down his bag on the floor and sighed again. "What's wrong with you?"

The Doctor shrugged lightly. "Not sure what it's called. But it was some sort of powder from the Devinea." He went on to explain his symptoms.

"Devinea? I'm not sure I've heard of them. What where you doing at the time?"

"Teaching the Leader how to floss," The Doctor replied, as though it was an everyday sort of thing.

Owen and Gwen just stared at him dumbly for a few seconds; Jack coughed to cover up a laugh and The Doctor smiled pleasantly.

"You err, what?" Owen asked again, thinking maybe he'd miss heard.

"Teaching the Devinea Leader about flossing." The Doctor repeated, not understanding why they seemed so surprised; other races had to look after their teeth too.

Deciding it was best to leave it, Owen carried on. "Can you describe what the alien was like, so I might be able to get an idea of what were dealing with?" He half dreaded the answer; the man would probably come out with something like, "Big, squishy, cute and funny."

Still with a pleasant smile on his face The Doctor nodded. "They're a lot like wolf spider's actually, in looks and body organs. Like a wolf spider, it has two body segments: a fused head and thorax and an unsegmented abdomen. Its fused head and thorax include its central nervous system, eyes which are a very pretty purple, fang-like mouthparts (huge they are), though many more teeth than a spider, around 2 thousand, and huge venom glands, much more dangerous than any animal on Earth - its poison can melt metal and will kill you in two seconds flat. Its abdomen holds its three hearts and breathing organs: six lungs, digestive system, (huge too you know, they can really eat), and at the tip, where spiders have several silk-producing spinnerets, they have around twenty liquid iron-like producing spinnerets. They've got twenty-two legs, eleven on each side, equipped with sensitive hairs that help detect air disturbances, a change in weather, movement and I'm pretty sure it acts kind of like a lie detector machine - they always seem to know when someone's lying. Anyway, they're dark blue in colour, but have dark red strips running all across their body and legs, and orangish colouration on the face. They live up in the highest point of the mountains back on their planet and stand at about seventeen feet tall."

All three humans were left staring open mouthed, gaping at him. "And you tried to teach it how to _floss_?" Gwen said in disbelief.

"I know," The Doctor nodded, continuing to smile. "When I was young they used to scare the Staazula out of me. I don't mind them now though."

Not sure what to say to that Owen pointed towards his bag. "I'll just see what I have." He hurried off towards his bag and began to rummage threw it.

While he was doing that Gwen decided to make conversation. "So," she asked The Doctor. "How long have you known Jack?"

"Well, we met it 1941, so if you count it from there sixty-six years, but it's really only been two." The Doctor told her, much to her confusion.

"1941? But nether of you would have been alive then."

Realising that she must not know about Jack's past, The Doctor just grinned, shrugged his shoulders and didn't respond.

"We met in London." Jack quickly put in. "Rose, who travels around a lot with The Doctor, got in a bit of trouble, I helped her out and she ended up taking me to see The Doctor."

Accepting that, but making sure to make a mental note of what The Doctor said about 1941, Gwen continued pleasantly. "So why do people call you Doctor, what's your real name?"

The Doctor once again shrugged. "Just The Doctor, that's my name." He said, scratching the top of his ear.

"But you must have a real name," Gwen said, not believing that he didn't.

"Nope." He smiled. "Just Doctor."

Before anything more could be said Owen came back over, a few vials in his hands. "These should do," He declared. "We have mesalamine to treat ulcerative colitis, proctitis, and proctosigmoiditis in necessary. Agalsidase beta, but just in case we need to reduce deposits of globotriaosylceramide. Alprazolam Tablets, for the frantic thrashing around. Various types of medicine for poisoning. Pain medication. Muscle relaxants. Blood pressure drugs. And a load of stuff that I have no idea what it's called because it's not from this planet, I do know what it does however… You're not allergic to horses are you? That could cause a side affect with some of that stuff."

The Doctor shook his head. "Nope, I have a horse, Arthur, he's from France."

Jack raised his eyebrows. "You called a horse Arthur?"

"What's wrong with that?" He frowned.

"Nothing," Jack said with a small grin. "Just seems a bit odd for an animal."

Owen interrupted the conversation by shoving some pills in The Doctor's hand. "Swallow."

Gwen handed him a glass of water, which he took gratefully. He gave the pills an ugly face, but threw them in his mouth with a gulp of water.

Satisfied he'd swallowed them, Owen instructed him to remove his jacket. The Doctor shrugged it off, keeping it close to him as though he thought someone would try to steal it. Owen took his right arm and began to feel for a vein. "Make your hand into a fist and keep on doing it." After a minute had passed, he let The Doctor's hand fall back to his side and took his left arm. "That's better." He pulled out a few needles and looked up at The Doctor. "This may sting a little." Giving him no time to reacted Owen carefully inserted the needle, pushing the medication into his blood stream. He gave it a minute, and then did the same with another medicine. A few minutes later several different types of medication were flowing through The Doctor's system. "You may feel some light headedness, that's normal."

The Doctor nodded; he certainly did feel light headed. He took in a breath but immediately exhaled sharply as a throbbing pain stabbed at his head. He doubled over, his head in his hands. He could feel the colour drain from his face, leaving him a deathly white. Just as suddenly as it started, it stopped. He sat back up to see three concerned faces looking at him; he gave them a bright smile. A second later he shot forwards again, not even noticing when he fell off the sofa. He was on the floor, madly gasping for breath as red hot pain shot through him - every part of his body felt as though it was on fire, his insides twisting, ripping apart. He wanted to scream out in pain, he wanted to just black out, but couldn't speak from pain, couldn't escape it in unconsciousness.

"He's having a reaction!" He heard Owen shout from somewhere above him, but the words meant nothing to him, he didn't even understand them, the pain had taken over his brain and it was all he could think.

He saw flashes of faces above him, could hear Jack shouting at Owen, Owen shouting back, Gwen shouting at both of them.

The Doctor took in a large breath then let out a blood-curdling scream. The pain was so bad. He'd probably not hurt this much if he was dipped in acid. Finally, finally his eyesight began to darken, the images becoming fuzzy. The last thing he saw before he blacked out was Jack's scared face.

-

-

Hope you liked.

Aww, I didn't like writing that first and last part, poor Doctor. Hehe they kissed, I wasn't gonna put that in this chapter, I was just gonna do the bit with The Doctor teasing Jack, but I was in a good mood, so I thought, what the hell! The title of this chapter is also a Gallifrey saying. Aren't wolf-spider's so cute! I want a pet Devinea.

Forgot to say, this story is set after Girl in the Fireplace as Mickey is still here and I wanted that bit with Arthur in. Not sure which bit of Torchwood it is…

Do not use those medicines all together at home! Lol. I'm guessing it wouldn't end well. But this is just a story, pretend its ok to mix lol. I did study medicine for a year, but that was because I had to, and I just switched off, ready to slit my wrists from boredom, just for something to do :P

My kitten's eyes began to open a few days ago! Their sooooo sweet!


	6. Torchwood Institute

When The Doctor Needs A Doctor

Thanks for all your great reviews, I'm glad you like it :) Sorry the delay in updating, exams and all.

Beta - I Shot The Sheriff

Chapter 5: Torchwood Institute

Jack threw open the door to the SUV and quickly stepped out, Owen and Gwen a beat behind him. He pulled open the door to the back seat, which The Doctor was laid across, unconscious, and carefully tugged him out. Jack took the other man into his arms and carried him towards the hub. Gwen ran ahead to hold the door open, whilst Owen lagged behind slightly.

As Jack carried The Doctor inside, Ianto looked on from behind the counter, he opened the door for them, and quickly followed them down into the base.

Jack placed The Doctor onto the medical table and then stood back; all of his team was stood behind him except for Owen who was busy preparing equipment. "What happened to him?" Tosh asked, watching the man's chest rise and fall with each breath.

"He seems to have had an allergic reaction to one of the medicines," Owen answered. "Usually I'd first check for things like that, but when you have Jack breathing down your neck…" He left it open, giving his boss a pointed look. Jack ignored this and turned to his team.

"Right, back to work." They went back to there stations reluctantly as told and Jack gave The Doctor one last look before following them out, leaving Owen to treat him.

It wasn't for another twenty minutes until Owen came out, and he walked straight over to Jack. "What is he?"

Jack put down a document he was reading and turned to him. "What do you mean?"

"Don't play stupid Jack," Owen warned, getting everyone's attention. "I've just gave him a full scan, his DNA is nothing like a human's, he has a third strand for a start, his brain is larger than a humans and the waves aren't right. To add to that, he has _two_ hearts! What is he Jack? 'Cos he sure is hell ain't human."

Jack sighed; he knew Owen would find out, he'd just hoped that he'd be able to treat The Doctor first. Jack hated questions. "You're right. He's alien."

"What's his species?"

"It doesn't matter," Jack shook his head. "You won't have heard of them."

"Maybe not, but if I know what he is I could do some research, find out how to treat him, for all I know he could be allergic to a bloody needle."

Jack glanced at the rest of the team, all had been listening, Tosh already had her fingers hovering above her keyboard, waiting to do some research on The Doctor. Jack then turned back to face Owen. "You wouldn't find anything about them, humans know nothing about his home planet."

Owen, however, wasn't happy with this answer. "We need to know Jack! Stop keeping so many secrets! We're not even meant to be healing sick aliens, we're meant to be capturing them and studying their technology!"

"Are we safe with him around?" Gwen cut in. "I mean if he's alien, shouldn't we put him in one of the cell's?"

"Does he seem dangerous to you Gwen?!" Jack snapped.

"Well, no, I mean, it's just that…" Gwen stuttered, surprised - that was the first time Jack had ever shouted at her.

"If he _wanted_ to kill you he would have done it already."

Gwen looked at Jack for a few seconds, just nodded, muttered a sorry and kept quiet.

"Just… Everyone back to work." Jack ordered.

000

The Doctor woke with a low groan, a dull acing in his stomach. He opened his eyes and looked around. The first thing he noticed was that he was in some sort of medical room, laid on a table/bed. Still laid down, he looked to his left, trying to figure out how he got here and if he was safe. He saw a woman, but her back was to him. She seemed to be going through some files. Keeping his eyes on her, The Doctor sat up. He was just sliding off the table when she turned around, jumping slightly in alarm. "Oh, you're awake."

Now that he could properly see her, The Doctor noticed that she was Japanese, and for some strange reason, he could have sworn he'd seen her before. He couldn't think where though and so he shrugged off the feeling; maybe he'd seen her in passing. "Hello, who are you?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm Toshiko Sato. Tosh for short," She gave him a small smile. "I'll go and get Jack now you're awake shall I?"

Tosh gave him another quick smile, looking quite nervous, and left up some stairs and through a door.

As she left, The Doctor settled back down, sat with his legs hanging over the side of the bed, swinging them. If Jack was here, then he obviously wasn't in any danger, and Tosh seemed pleasant enough.

For the next few minutes he amused himself by humming tunelessly, taking in his surroundings and trying to ignore the dull pain.

Before long, the door flew open and Jack, accompanied by Owen, Gwen, Tosh and a man The Doctor didn't know. "Hello," The Doctor grinned with a wave.

"Good to see your up," Jack said.

"Good to be up," The Doctor agreed. "I haven't slept so much in the last day since before the Time War."

"Time War?" Tosh questioned.

"Oh, long story," The Doctor brushed the question off. "You don't want to hear it."

Tosh looked as though she was going to ask more questions, so Jack quickly interrupted. "Well, Doctor, this is Ianto, you've met the rest."

"It's just the five of you?" The Doctor asked, sounding surprised.

"Yeah, why?"

"No reason… This is Torchwood right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, its just that I always imagined Torchwood to be, bigger. You know, bunch of alien specialists around, scientists, soldiers maybe."

"Well," Jack shrugged, "The London one was like that. It seems as though they don't really care for Cardiff."

"Huh, guess Blon Fel-Fotch Pasameer-Day Slitheen was right."

"_Who_?" Gwen asked, trying to pronounce the name in her head with little success.

"Blon Fel-Fotch Pasameer-Day Slitheen, she's from Raxacoricofallapatorius." The Doctor explained, oblivious to the odd looks he was getting. "You'll remember her Jack."

Jack nodded with a grin. "The TARDIS turned her into an egg."

The Torchwood team decided not to comment on this. Instead, Ianto decided to ask Jack more questions. "So how did you two meet - with that Slitheen?"

The Doctor had already figured out that the team new little of Jack's past, and so he decided to leave Jack to answer.

"No, we meet before that in London."

"So what, you used to meet up?" Ianto continued.

Jack was already getting annoyed with the questions, and it was only the second one. "We travelled together for a while along with a girl called Rose."

"That girl who rang?" Gwen asked, remembering the call that took Jack to London.

"Yeah, her," Jack said in a voice which clearly stated that he'd answer no more of their questions.

The Doctor had been watching Jack closely throughout that, but it still didn't stop him from noticing the slight, almost accusing, way that Ianto spoke and couldn't help but wonder if he and Jack have something going on.

He hadn't known him long, but The Doctor wasn't to keen on Ianto already. He wasn't sure what it was, but he didn't like the thought of Jack being with him. And he sure as Hell didn't like the glance Ianto had just sent to Jack. _He_ new Jack first dammit, not the Welsh man.

'_What am I thinking? So what if they're together? It doesn't concern me. Besides I have Rose… Kind of.' _The Doctor shook his head, trying to rid himself of the thoughts. _'For the love of Rassilon I'm losing it.'_

"Well," Jack's voice spoke, interrupting his thoughts. "Want a tour?"

The Doctor ginned and jumped off the bed. "This way then," Jack gestured, "Oh, and watch out for Myfanwy."

"Who?" The Doctor asked in confusion as they exited the room. The rest of the team came out after and went back to work.

"Our pet pterodactyl." He grinned.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Where on Earth did you get a dinosaur?"

"Fell through the riff a while back. She was killing and eating sheep, so we caught her and decided to keep her - of course, she had to learn some table manners first."

"Of course," The Doctor agreed with amusement. "So your job is going round saving innocent animals from an evil fate?" he joked.

Jack grinned, putting on a serious voice. "Yep, that's Torchwood, above the Rescue Homes, outside the RSPCA. Tapping dinosaurs and large predators that threaten cute little fluffy puppy's."

The Doctor laughed. "Sounds just the right job for you Jack," He was going to say more when something caught his eye, a glass jar full of some sort of preservative liquid, covering a severed hand. The Doctor ran over and picked it up. "Hey, that's my hand!" He turned to Jack, who'd followed him over. "How did you get my hand?"

Jack shrugged lightly. "Well the day it got cut off it fell from the Sycorax Ship, hit some poor bugger on the head, put him in hospital with brain injury, some friend of his took it to the police, Torchwood One somehow found out about it, not sure how they knew it wasn't human, I guess because it fell from the ship…anyway, I, er, _borrowed_ it off them for safe keeping."

The Doctor nodded as they both looked at it. The hand itself began to twitch, as though it wanted to rejoin with The Doctor.

"Sorry hand," he said, as though talking to a child who wasn't allowed where he's going. "I already have a new one." To emphasize his point he waved his newest hand in front of the jar.

Jack looked at the hand to. "How exactly _did_ you get a new hand? I know you can regenerate, but I never new that you could grow new body parts."

"Oh I can't usually, it was because I was in the first fifteen hours of my regeneration," he explained, still watching his hand curiously.

"What if you got your head chopped off?" Jack grinned. "Would that grow back?"

The Doctor set his hand down. "I highly doubt it, I'd most likely just die for good. It's not really something I've cared to test. I'm guessing that'd just about kill anything, even you, Mr I-Can't-Die."

"Probably, but I'm not to keen on finding out either."

"Which," The Doctor began, looking at Jack. "Leads me onto my next question… Well first question, and I guess it doesn't really lead on to it, it just made me think of our little talk back at Rose's. So really it's something completely different, well, not different in the sense that it has nothing to do with dying as travelling in space always leaves you with plenty of opportunities to die, or is that just with me? Anyway, as I was saying when we was back at Rose's and we where talking about the Bad Wolf and how Rose brought you back, killed the Daleks and I regenerated, oh, _never_ tell Rose I had to regenerate because of her. As I was saying, well, getting to, well, going to get to sometime soon enough, which I'll just cut to now shall I judging by the look on your face. I really can talk can't I? Anyway, the question, when and how are you going to tell your team that you're leaving?... If you still want to of course…"

Jack's annoyed look at the babbling changed in an instant at The Doctor's question. He'd forgotten about that. "I'm not really sure, to be honest I never really thought about it."

The Doctor nodded slowly. "Do you still want to come?"

"Of course!" Jack answered without hesitation, which The Doctor picked up on, causing him to smile slightly.

What the pair failed to notice however was Gwen who was stood a few feet away, having caught last bit of the conversation. "You're leaving?"

Jack and The Doctor spun around to face Gwen's upset and confused face. "You're leaving?" She repeated, eyes fixed on Jack

-

-

-A/N: Hope you liked it. Hmm, wonder why The Doctor didn't take a liking to Ianto? ;) Just to let you know, I like Ianto, just want a bit of jealously in here (you'll see more of it next chapter). Thanks for reading!


	7. Sentiment

When The Doctor Needs A Doctor

Beta - I Shot The Sheriff

Sorry for the delay in updating, I've been really busy, then me and a friend randomly decided to go away for a few days, so to try and make up for it, I've done an extra long chapter. Hope you like it.

Chapter 6: Sentiment

_Jack and The Doctor spun around to face Gwen's upset and confused face. "Your leaving?" She repeated, eyes fixed on Jack._

Jack glanced at The Doctor, hoping for some help, but the Time Lords eyes were firmly fixed of Gwen. Turning back to her Jack sighed. "Well I didn't count on staying at Torchwood for ever. I'm sorry Gwen, it's just, you wouldn't understand what it's like out there."

"Out where?" Gwen managed through her shock. "What don't I understand…No," She shook her head. "No, it doesn't matter; it's none of my business. I need to get going anyway; I have to check something out." She quickly turned away from him, but not fast enough as Jack saw tears forming in her eyes, and hurriedly headed out of the hub.

Jack watched her go, unable to think of anything to say.

"Well that didn't go very well," The Doctor stated.

"Thanks for pointing that out, Doc," Jack said sarcastically.

"No problem," The Doctor grinned, not having realised he was being sarcastic, or perhaps just to annoy him, Jack wasn't sure which. "It is a shame though, I like Gwen; she reminds me of Rose."

Lucky, nobody else had heard them, as Jack didn't feel like explaining anything to the members of Torchwood yet, he'd put it off until Gwen returned.

Jack sighed, and finished giving The Doctor the tour.

"Owen?" Tosh called, not taking her eyes off of the computer screen.

"Yeah?" He asked, looking over to her.

"Come and look at this!" She waved him over, indicating the computer. "Why didn't we realise?"

With a slight frown of confusion Owen made his way over to her, and bent slightly to be level with her screen. "Bloody Hell!"

"What's going on?" Ianto asked, coming to stand with them.

Tosh glanced at him, and checked behind him, where she could see Jack and The Doctor, out of hearing range.

"Look here. According to these records this Doctor is Torchwood's number one enemy, banished by Queen Victoria in 1879, saying that 'their world is steeped in terror and blasphemy and yet they consider it fun'."

"Who is 'their'?" Ianto asked, looking over what Tosh had read for himself. "Jack?"

"Maybe Rose," Owen suggested, remembering the name. "Or all three of them."

"Hold on." Tosh muttered and began to type away, keeping to that page, trying to dig up more information. "Here." She pointed to the screen a minute later. "'Sir Doctor of TARDIS and Dame Rose of the Powell Estate'. Sounds like just the two of them. It seems the Queen knighted them, and then banished them immediately after."

"But why would she do that?" Owen questioned. "Where's the logic behind that?"

"Well there isn't any really." A voice interrupted them. Jumping slightly they turned round with guilty expressions to find The Doctor smiling at them, and Jack just behind him, looking half annoyed, half amused. "We saved her from a were-wolf, well, saved in the fact that she didn't die," The Doctor shrugged. "She did however get a little scratch on her wrist. And yes, for once Hollywood got something right, that _does_ turn you into one yourself. And so, incase you haven't figured it out yet, the Royal family are were-wolves." The shocked looks didn't seem to effect The Doctor at all. "So then, as Rose and I were having quite a bit of fun with the situation, oh, that were-wolf was beautiful, first time I've ever seen one in real life, which, I've got to say is saying something for me, well, anyway, a few, er, maybe a little more than a few people died, so Queen Victoria saw us as dangerous, I guess she just knighted us because we saved her life. Seriously, she couldn't wait to get rid of us… Very rude."

000

Gwen sighed heavily; maybe she'd reacted too drastically. She'd always known that Jack held some huge secrets. "The right kind of Doctor," she muttered to herself as she walked the streets of Cardiff. It was that man he always talked about; and as that was so, maybe it was only right that Jack went with him, maybe he was meant to. Besides, who was she to tell Jack what to do? They were friends, she was meant to think what's best for him, not her. Making up her mind Gwen turned on her heel, heading back to the hub.

000

Gwen entered the base to find everyone around Tosh's computer, talking. "What's going on?" She asked, making her presents known. Jack looked at her - the look in his eyes spoke volumes, wondering if she was okay, unseen by anyone else other than The Doctor she gave him a small smile. Jack in return shot her a quick grin.

"Apparently," Owen said, enjoying himself. "Jack's good friend here is Torchwood's most wanted, and if anyone ever found out that he's here, and walking around freely, we'd lose more than our jobs."

Gwen looked at The Doctor, shock written on her face. "Why? What did you do?"

"Saved Queen Victoria from death." The Time Lord smiled.

She was obviously confused as to how this would make him wanted, and so Owen decided to speak before she did. He'd already heard the story, and he wanted to know more, not listen to the same thing again. "So, have you and Jack shagged?"

Everyone stared at him for a few seconds, eyebrows raised slightly, and Ianto gave a snort of irritation, sounding quite jealous as he glared in The Doctor's direction.

"No." Jack answered, sounding amused. "Besides he and Rose always had a thing."

"What thing?" The Doctor questioned. "We're completely un-thingy, not a single thing between us, never was a thing, and there never will be a thing. Besides, if there _was_ a thing, which there isn't, Jackie would castrate me!"

Jack rolled his eyes. "Yeah, whatever, it's obvious you and Rose have something, a chemistry, you could see it when your together, and in that dance."

"What, so I can't dance now unless I want to shag that person?" The Doctor rolled his eyes.

"Yep," Jack grinned with a nod of his head.

The Doctor stared at him for a few long seconds. "OK, maybe for a while I _may_ have been slightly attracted to her, but I got over it, and besides, that was the other me."

"Other you?" Tosh asked in confusion.

The Doctor nodded. "Yeah, I used to look different." He kept it simple; the whole regeneration process would take too long to explain.

"Jack?" Gwen said. When they'd been talking about Rose, it reminded her about something The Doctor had said back in London. "The Doctor said something about the two of you meting in 1941."

This got everyone's attention, as they looked between The Doctor and Jack. "But that's impossible." Tosh reasoned.

"_Improbable_." The Doctor corrected. "What was the chance of flying round space, finding a mauve metal cylinder, chasing it down to Earth to find out its mutating people and its this stupid apes fault as he just did a half arsed job?" He jabbed his thumb in Jack's direction at the 'stupid ape' part, and ended the little speech with a snort. However a look of amusement was evident on his face.

"W-what do you mean?" Tosh asked, completely shocked.

"Put it this way - in 1941 Jack almost destroyed the whole of the human race, and if it wasn't for me you lot wouldn't even have been born."

"Hey!" Jack interrupted. "I helped put everyone right to! And Rose." He added.

The Doctor shrugged. "Yes you did, but it was your fault to begin with."

"Oh come on Doc, give me a little slack, I was willing to die for that, and I was about to too."

"Until," The Doctor grinned. "_I_ once again helped _you_, and _I_ saved _your_ life."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Gezz, if I'd known you'd be like this about it I'd have told you to leave me to get blown up."

The Doctor gave him charming smile. "Yes, but for some odd reason Rose liked you."

"Oh, so that is all I was there for, because Rose liked me?" Jack said back. It was friendly banter, just for the fun of an argument. "Thanks a lot."

"Well, I suppose you did come in handy at times." The Doctor shrugged. "Like with the Slitheen, those insane 16th Century Japanese warriors and the Daleks."

"Wait, wait!" Gwen quickly put in before everyone became too confused. "How exactly were you in 1941?"

"Rose and I are time travellers," The Doctor smiled pleasantly, as though it was a normal, everyday type of job.

"How about you?" Owen asked Jack.

Jack hesitated for a few seconds, and then began to speak, choosing his words carefully. "I used to work for something called the Time Agency, and so I travelled back and forwards in time for various work."

"The Time Agency?" Tosh looked at Jack. "But what is that, its something I've never heard of, and I most certainly never heard about a time travel machine."

"That's because time travel doesn't exist yet," Jack sighed, not at all happy about telling them so much. "I know that you've all tried to find out more about me, where I'm from, when I was born. But you never found anything, and you never will, because I haven't even been born yet. This isn't my time."

The room went silent for a while, and nobody noticed through Jack's speech when The Doctor took an empty seat, a hand clutching his chest.

"So, so when are you from?" Ianto asked.

Jack shook his head. "It doesn't matter."

In his seat The Doctor tried to sit straight, but sharp jabbing pains kept on stabbing at his hearts. He tried his best to ignore it, but the pain was cutting off his breath and his eyes began to sting.

"So where's he from?" Ianto asked, jerking his thumb in The Doctor's general direction without looking.

"Far away, further than me."

"Well that's helpful," Owen muttered sarcastically.

Still nobody noticed The Doctor as he was bent over, arms wrapped around his chest tightly, as though trying unsuccessfully to relieve himself of even the slightest bit of pain. "J-J-Ja-," He gasped, but it came out so quiet he was just wasting what little breath he had in his lungs. The pain in his hearts was worsening and his eyes were watering badly, his mouth dry and his lungs felt empty.

"Yes it is isn't it?" Jack replied, just as sarcastic. "Besides, its not my place to say."

"So you two never, erm," Ianto began, trying to find the right words. "You never had anything, before, before Torchwood. I mean, you mentioned something about being with an alien."

Jack sighed, how many times? "No, I told you, he always had a thing for Rose, I don't care what he says, I know he does. Besides," he grinned, "alien_s_, plural…and The Doctor has never been quiet for this long."

Surprised, everyone spun round on their heels to see The Doctor, almost off of his chair, looking half choked, trying unsuccessfully to breathe.

"Doc!" Jack grabbed him, holding him up, looking into his malaise face. "Owen!" Jack shouted, but there was no need, he was already finding what he needed to help.

Owen ran back a minute later with many things to help him breathe and two tablets of aspirin. Without waiting to tell anyone what he was doing or taking the time out of get The Doctor's, consent Owen had rammed a respiratory tube down his throat and injected him with some form of liquid. As The Doctor began to calm down, Owen went to give him the aspirin, but The Doctor saw what it was and resisted, pushing Owen's hand away. "No," He gasped with difficulty, partly due to the fact of the tube.

"Its just aspirin," Owen told him. "It'll help with the pain."

The Doctor shook his head furiously, and pulled the tube from his mouth. "It's deadly to my kind, one tablet would kill me. I can't even touch the stuff!"

"Okay, okay," He pulled back his hand and quickly disposed of the tablets. "Stay in pain."

The Doctor frowned at him. "Rather pain than death."

"Or regeneration." Jack put in.

The Doctor shook his head. "Nope, it'll cause a pulmonary and cerebral embolism severe enough to prevent regeneration."

"It's that deadly to you?" Jack questioned in surprise. "It does human's wonders."

"Yes well, I'm not human."

"Actually Doctor," Owen said. "Could I talk to you about your biology? It's like nothing I've ever seen before, I'm sure Tosh would like to hear too."

The Doctor studied him for a minute. "Only if you don't keep any records of what I say," he bargained.

Owen looked put out for a minute, but without even trying he knew it was the only way he'd ever discover anything. "Deal." He shook the Time Lord's hand,

and ran off to fetch something from his lab.

He returned two minutes later and everyone bent over to see what he had. There were two sheets, one an x–ray of The Doctor's skeleton, the other his general biology. "Let's start with the bone structure." Owen began immediately. "Now, your skeleton is almost identical to a humans, except that you have two extra ribs."

"Yep." The Doctor nodded. "Mostly to help with all the organs."

Owen nodded. "Which brings us onto the next thing, you have two of most of the organs that humans have only one of, and 4 of the organs that humans have only two of."

The Doctor nodded, as Tosh, Gwen, Ianto and Jack watched on, giving their undivided attention. "That's true; however, I only have one liver."

"And you have more than one stomach." Owen added.

"Yeah, means that I'm not as vulnerable to malnutrition as Humans are. Despite this, my metabolism is relatively close to a humans and I can eat the same foods. I can easily go for a week without food and sometimes sit in thought for days with out food or water… 40 days without food and water will make a me delirious however."

"How does food and drink affect you?" Tosh asked, absolutely fascinated.

The Doctor paused to think about it for a while. "Well, food does the same to me as you; got to eat to live, just not quite so much. It's the same for drinks too, unless you're talking about alcohol. For me, I can't become drunk or suffer the effects of hallucinogens unless I want to, and thus can easily drink 10 pints of beer."

"That explains it," Jack muttered to himself, but everyone heard, causing Gwen and The Doctor to grin. Then he said a little louder, "Couldn't you have told me that _before_ I spent so much?"

The Doctor gave him a cheeky grin. "Nope, I knew the reason you wanted me drunk."

"Oh please," Jack scoffed. "I don't need to get you drunk for that."

"You just keep telling yourself that," The Doctor laughed.

"God knows why Jack took any liking in him," Ianto mumbled to himself. "Some weird alien."

"Yeah, yeah, no one's bothered about what you to get up to in your spare time," Owen said to Jack and The Doctor, nobody having heard Ianto. "Now, your internal body temperature is 15-16 degrees Celsius. However, your skin temperature is only a little below the human norm."

"That's true. I've got to say I really don't feel that comfortable in a room over 20 degrees Celsius. However, having said that, as adults my people were capable of withstanding extreme temperatures at both ends of the scales. I can remain conscious in the -270 degrees Celsius cold atmosphere of space for 6 minutes and can withstand 200 degree C for up to 3 minutes."

"That's amazing," Gwen said in wonder.

Owen was already ready for the next bit. "Your biology and blood system differs, and your growth rate of hair, although it projects from the epidermis, though it grows from hair follicles deep in the dermis like a humans, it seems, like, I don't know, meant for something other than temperature control and warmth."

"When trained, my people could control their adrenaline, blood-sugar levels, heart rate, respiration, and perspiration; I can do this. I can even switch off any of my organs at will. My people also have control over the speed and location of our hair growth. I can grow hair faster then humans or stop the growth completely." He then turned to Jack. "Jack have you ever noticed that my skin smells like honey?"

"Yeah, I did actually," The ex-Time Agent nodded. "Always thought it made you seem a bit girly. Rose and I always used to come up with ideas for this. I said you probably just like the smell, but she always insisted that you did it because you liked to have people lick you."

"Thanks," He said dryly. "In fact it's like that for a purpose; it has extra subdural and subcutaneous layers. This makes my skin very resistant to radiation, physical damage, to poison ivy, sunburns, and tanning."

"Anything else… alien-y?" Tosh asked, not quite finding the right words.

"Of course, I'm much more advanced than you apes. I can erect non-porous barriers around my nose, ears and eyeballs that prevent any intrusion on the molecular level. This allows me to remain conscious for 6 minutes and survive up to 20 minutes in space unprotected. I can also remain conscious when exposed to G-forces that would kill a human such as you," He boasted.

"So modest," Jack said sarcastically. "What about sleep?" He questioned with a sudden though. "Except for that time at Rose's when I had to wake you up, I've never seen you sleep, and I remember once Rose saying the same thing."

The Doctor nodded his head. "I was asleep because I was ill, yes. Normally I will only have one hour of sleep every 2 days, because for me 20 minutes is equivalent to 8 hours for a human. Some of my people could get by on a decade of sleep every 100 years…Well, when I say sleep, its not quite to same as for your kind, for me it's a self-induced sleep trance in which breathing, heart beat, and brain activity are all reduced to an absolute minimum."

"Do you dream?" Gwen asked curiously.

The Doctor turned a little red at this, as though he wasn't sure what to say. But then again, why not? He shouldn't have to feel embarrassed. "Rarely." He began, still with a light shade of red on his cheeks. "Common for my people, when I do, I sometimes dream of choosing my next body, being able to fly, and, er, becoming the opposite sex, and bearing children."

Jack began to laugh; he couldn't help it. "You dream of being a woman!" He howled, trying to picture The Doctor in drag, sending him into hysterics as an image of the Time Lord in a frilly pink dress, high heels and waving a handbag floated into his thoughts. "What colour lipstick, honey-boy?"

The Doctor had returned to a nice shade of red as he glared at the other man. "It was only twice," He muttered.

Jack forced himself to calm down, but still had a crazy grin on his face. "Anything else?" He chuckled.

The Doctor shrugged, and then gave a complaisant smile. "I have to urinate every few days."

Jack snorted in amusement, as everyone else looked a little putout.

"Anything else, or have you finished?" The Doctor asked Owen politely.

"Well, we've heard of your biology, but what about your planet, what's it like. What are your people like? What sort of things do you get up to? And, most importantly, _what_ are you? What is the name of your species called?"

The smile fell from The Doctor's face immediately, a sad gaze overcoming him, his eyes downcast. Talking about his biology was fine, he could do that, but the rest was to painful, he wasn't ready for that, especially to a load of people (excluding Jack) that he'd only met a few hours ago. Already these people knew more about him than Rose did, and these were meant to be his enemy. Well, he was completely benign, but he wasn't too sure about them.

Luckily for him Jack knew how he felt about him talking about the other Time Lords and (or) Gallifrey, and so he shifted in his stance. "That's enough for today," He declared. "Encase you've forgotten, you all should be working."

"Right, yeah sorry," Tosh said, and began to go back to her pervious work.

Owen shrugged his shoulders and headed back to the lab and Ianto left to file some reports.

It was only Jack, The Doctor and Gwen left now. "Jack, could you come and look at something?" The Welsh woman asked. "It's a report I received from the police a few hours ago. It seems that yesterday a body was found, with 'strange' markings on their skin, which are not tattoos."

With a nod Jack began to follow her, then paused and looked back at The Doctor who was left stood, not really sure what to do. "You coming?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

000

"Know it?"

The Doctor bent down to examine the body, taking in the human like appearance, apart from the fact that its teeth were sharp and pointed, and all across its skin was pale blue markings. "Galze." He announced. "A peaceful race, no idea what it's doing on Earth, they usually prefer to stay on their own planet with their family. Not really known for travelling the stars."

Jack looked over the body, only the face was showing, the rest covered by a body bag. "Looks like he's an exception then."

"She," The Doctor corrected. Jack looked at the face again, a strong jaw line, and a masculine face. "The female's are much more butch and larger. They have a wider shoulder width, are taller and have a deeper voice," He paused now, thinking for a few minutes. "Most of the Galze bare children as soon as they reach adulthood, and for the rest of their life they'll remain close along with their mate. And so, I'm thinking, if she's here then most likely so are a male and children. If so we need to find them."

Jack nodded. "You said they were peaceful, but on a different world, will they stay like that?"

The Doctor nodded. "Should do. We need to find them to help; our best chance of finding them would be somewhere out of the way of people, somewhere secluded. An abandoned warehouse or in the sewers. Come on." They zipped back up the body bag and headed out of the room.

Once back in the SUV Jack got in contact to inform the rest of the Torchwood team what they'd found out, and that they'd be back in a few hours.

"There's a large warehouse two miles away, been empty for years, I guess we should start there," Jack said as he started up the motor.

Ten minutes later into the journey The Doctor was bored of the silence. "So, Jack, how long have you been working for Torchwood?"

"A while." He shrugged.

"Long while or little while?"

"…Long while."

"…Sorry."

Jack shrugged his shoulders. "Just how it worked out."

The Doctor sat back more into his seat and turned his head to look at Jack. "You know, I've got to say it was very surprising to see you when I woke up at Rose's. Wasn't expecting that in the slightest. I thought about coming here you know, coming to find you. I didn't think you'd want to... After the Game Station."

Jack glanced at him and then once again turned his attention to the road. "I always wanted you around, even when I was mad. I changed when I met you, changed for the better. What was there to life conning, cheating and flirting my way through time? Cause that's all I was; a cheat, but when I met you, you showed me a whole new way to live, showed me that I was better than what I believed for myself. And I know that you weren't to keen on me for a while, but you were so…different, unique. I loved that. You did so much good for the Universe, saved so many lives, it was amazing."

"I didn't save everyone's life; so many people died," He sighed.

"Of course they did." Jack nodded in agreement. "How could they not? It's not a game, you can't save every last person all of the time, that'd be impossible. Some just have to die."

"Like you," The Doctor mumbled, but Jack heard.

"Hey, I'm back now aren't I?" He gave the other man a grin, flashing his teeth.

The Doctor turned his head, so he wasn't facing Jack no more, instead looking straight ahead out of the windscreen. "But you're not meant to be." He whispered to himself, to quiet for Jack to hear.

"Here we are," Jack announced, pulling up. Both looked out of the window to see a large run down building with bordered up windows, cracks in the stone work and a closed metal gate keeping people out, a danger sigh hanging from it.

Stepping out of the SUV they went over, The Doctor pulling out his Sonic Screwdriver to open the gates. A moment later, the chain keeping it together fell to the floor.

"After you," The Doctor gave him a toothy grin. Jack stepped through, The Doctor a beat behind him. Reaching the building, Jack kicked in what little was left of the door and the pair walked in. The room was mostly empty, some rubble in one corner and an old cracked desk in another. The Doctor motioned to a door opposite them from which they entered. It was much darker in this room as the light from the now setting sun was unable to enter due to the bordered up windows.

"Where to?" Jack asked The Doctor who he knew had better eyesight.

Without a word, the Time Lord set off to the left, Jack close behind.

For the next few minutes they explored the building, with each room getting darker and darker, until Jack had to stay within inches of The Doctor to be able to see where he was going. "What's the matter? Afraid of the dark?" The Doctor cracked as Jack accidentally brushed his hand against his.

"I don't know," he said suggestively. "If I am do I get to hold hands?"

As he said that The Doctor was surprised when the thought sounded quite tempting. Holding Jack's hand sounded nice to him. However he didn't act out on that, instead giving a snort and a "Keep dreamin'." Just then a creak sounded and a muffled voice. The pair locked eyes for a few seconds, and set of to find the source of the noise.

Thankfully the room they ended up in had had its wooden windows smashed, and so the last rays of the sinking sun trickled in. The room was like the others, broken furniture and lots of dust. The main difference however was three figures crouched down together against the other wall, people with pale blue markings. The largest, obviously the male, was two thirds the size of the dead female back at the police station. The two children were young; looking to be around 5 and 8 years old. Unlike the adults, the children had bright gold eyes.

The adult male looked up as the pair came over. "Hello there. I'm The Doctor and this is Jack. We've come to help," he said kindly, noticing the youngest child sinking into his father's chest, scared of the new comers.

The adult regarded him, trying to figure out weather or not they were trustworthy. Finely he stood up, reaching about five foot seven. "I am Deyyilungbar."

"Hello Deyyilungbar. Care to get out of here and go home?"

Deyyilungbar shook his head. "Our ship was destroyed in a crash landing."

"Is there anyway to get in contact with someone?" Jack asked.

"I already have." Deyyilungbar told them. "But it's a field half a mile away were they are going to pick us up. To reach it we'll have to go near the people of Earth. Young Jakkar is ill also, I don't want to make him walk anywhere." He gestured to the younger one with the last part.

"We can take you," The Doctor offered. "Is there anyone else?"

A sad look overcame Deyyilungbar for a few seconds, before he shook it off. "My mate was killed in the crash, it is only us left."

"I'm sorry," The Doctor spoke softly.

"Come on, let's get going," Jack said while helping the Galze children to their feet. The group made there way back out of the building slowly, Deyyilungbar carrying the ill Jakkar, the other child, who was a girl called Calosoma, was on Jack's back.

Ten minutes later they exited the warehouse, stepping into the early night, a full moon and countless stars shining down on them. The three Galze piled into the back seat of the SUV as Jack and The Doctor took the front seats. Jack pulled off and headed in the direction Deyyilungbar had said they were leaving from.

It was only a two-minute drive and they were soon standing in the middle of a deserted field. "What time did they say they'd be hear?" Jack asked checking his watch.

"Nine twenty-seven, Wales Earth time."

"Four minutes," Jack informed them. He bent down and let Calosoma climb from his back, who then sat down on the grass, her brother going to sit with her.

As they were waiting, Jack spoke with Deyyilungbar and The Doctor hummed to himself, putting in a word every now and then.

Exactly four minutes later, a blinding white light flashed, quick as lightning. Everyone had shut their eyelids against the sudden assault, when they opened them it was to discover a pod before them. It was small, built for two, but large enough for the stranded family.

Deyyilungbar ushered his children into it, then turned to The Doctor and Jack. "Thank you."

"Oh, we hardly did anything." The Doctor waved him off. "Go on, have a safe trip back."

"Nice to meet you," Jack added in, shaking his hand.

Deyyilungbar nodded. "Same." And then stepped in after his children, shutting a clear dome over there heads, securing them in.

The pod roared into life and Jakkar and Calosoma waved as they set off, headed for the stars.

The Doctor and Jack watched until they were no longer visible before heading back to Torchwood.

000

They stepped into the hub to find it empty. Everyone had already gone home, the only sound being Myfanwy's flapping of wings above them. Both men removed their coats, leaving them on a railing.

"I feel cold," The Doctor said aloud, rubbing his hands over his arms. A dull pain came back to his hearts, but he chose to ignore this - the pain wasn't that bad.

"Then maybe you should have left your coat on," Jack mused.

The Doctor shook his head. "No, it's more of an internal cold. Like my flesh, not skin."

Jack gave him a worried look. "Maybe you should get some rest or something, you can take my bed if you like, I don't mind."

"Nah, thanks, but I'm not tired, Time Lord remember."

"If you're sure," Jack shrugged.

With nothing else better to do Jack took a seat, and The Doctor sat on a desk in front of him. "Hey, Jackwhat goes bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud?"

"_What?_" He asked in confusion, what type of weird question was that?

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "It's a joke."

"Oh, right. No idea."

"A Time Lord committing suicide!" He cracked, but saw Jack's blank look and the grin faded. "Okay, bad joke."

"Just a little," Jack laughed good-naturedly.

"Oh well." He looked around the room for the next few minutes, nothing in particular catching his interest. After a while his eyes set on Myfanwy, just watching the pterodactyl gliding along lazily.

As The Doctor watched the dinosaur, Jack watched him. Although he did miss the old Doctor, he really liked this one to: the big mop of brown hair, slender and taller, large brown eyes and a cheeky grin. This Doctor was more lenient, laid back and had a love for fun. All to Jack's liking. But what would The Doctor think? No matter what he said Jack still firmly believed that The Doctor was in love, or falling in love, with Rose. Why would he be interested in Jack anyway? Sure he flirted back, but only because it was fun. They had that kiss in Rose's kitchen, but it had been Jack that kissed him, not the other way round. The Doctor would have only kissed back on reflex or just as an automatic response.

As he was lost in his thoughts he failed to notice The Doctor had seen his staring, and was now looking right back, a strange look on his face. "Jack?"

"Huh?" He jumped slightly, giving The Doctor a startled look.

"Are you okay?" He frowned, a look in his eyes Jack couldn't figure out.

"I'm fine." He paused for a few seconds and stared The Doctor in the eye. "Actually, no, I'm not. You see, I've just got a sudden urge to do this." Then, without another word Jack stood and stepped the little distance towards The Doctor, stopping when he was stood between the other man's partly spread legs. Without a thought Jack leaned into him, pressing his lips against The Doctor's, he wrapped one hand around The Doctor's waist, the other running through his thick messy hair. All he could think about was how good it felt to have him pressed against him, how right it felt as The Doctor's hand's reached up, wrapping around Jack's neck, pulling him closer. Jack relished in the taste of The Doctor as he parted his lips, letting Jack's tongue slid in, kissing him as though life depended on it. And right here, right now, for all The Doctor cared, it did. His hearts were beating furiously, a need for Jack, so strong that it almost scared him. His arms wrapped around Jack more tightly, pulling him so there chests were pressed flat against each other. Jack moaned softly in the back of his throat, loosing himself in the feeling of the man before him. By now Jack's hips were pressing hard into the desk, but he couldn't bring himself to care. All that he could feel was the other man, he never wanted to let go. A flame of emotion was burning inside of them, tenderness in their urgent touches. Excitement mixed in with desire. Dozens of emotions running through him, Jack reluctantly broke the kiss, needing air. As he pulled a slight way away from The Doctor Jack kept his eyes locked on his.

"Told you Rose and I don't have a thing." He whispered, forehead leaning against Jack's.

In response Jack grinned, then pulled him back against him and into another kiss.

-

-A/N: Hope you liked.

Tonight, BBC121:55 Would I Lie to You? John Barrowman is on it.

Random fact: John Barrowman once had a piss in Prince Charles garden.


	8. London

When The Doctor Needs A Doctor

Beta – I Shot The Sheriff

Chapter 7: London

The next morning when Jack awoke, the first thing to come back to him was the previous night. He sat up in his bed; the covers falling down his chest as he did so, noticing that he still had yesterday's clothes on. Getting out of bed, Jack headed for the shower, picking up some clean clothes as he went.

When he arrived in the main body of the hub twenty minutes later, feeling much cleaner and refreshed, he noticed the only people around were Ianto (off to the side sorting files into order), and The Doctor, who was examining the Bekaran deep-tissue scanner owned by Owen at the other end of the room. Neither seemed to take notice of the other's presence, but both looked over as Jack entered. Ianto gave him a smile, but The Doctor glanced, and then turned back to the scanner. For a few seconds Jack watched him, trying to figure out what was going through his mind; it was like the other night never happened. With a sigh Jack shook his head; he had the same chance getting into The Doctor's head as he did of becoming the world's next best tap dancer.

Leaving it for now, Jack headed to his office. Out of the corner of his eye The Doctor watched him leave. He'd have to careful around Jack, he couldn't afford to get mixed up with all of these silly human emotions. He had no time or desire to get 'involved' with anyone. Placing the item down, he moved over to view more objects, his thoughts moving with him. He wanted to go back to London - he was getting bored stood around Torchwood, and he wasn't sure Jack's team really trusted him. "When are we leaving?" He voiced, fiddling with some object in his hands.

Ianto looked up at that and Jack glanced in his direction, but made his way over to The Doctor. As he walked over, Jack noticed that the Time Lord was shivering slightly, as though he was cold. "I don't know, any time I suppose." He shrugged, keeping his eyes on him, but not speaking up about what he saw.

The Doctor nodded to himself. "Do you have anything important to do around here?"

"Not at the minute," Jack replied, scratching the back of his head.

"Fantastic!" The Doctor beamed. "So, how are we getting back?"

"What, now?" Jack asked, a little thrown off. "We've not been here that long."

The Doctor gave a light shrug. "Well you said yourself that there's nothing going on right now, so, what's the point in staying?"

"There are my friend's here Doctor, I don't want to just walk out on them now. I don't even know when, or _if_ I'll ever seen them again." Jack lowered his voice at the last part to prevent Ianto from overhearing.

"Time machine Jack." The Doctor reminded him. "We could leave now and see them again tomorrow."

"Yeah, maybe if you actually get the date right for once," Jack couldn't help but grin, lightening the mood.

"Date right? What, you don't like chasing monsters? How about a nice candle lit dinner for two next time then?" The Doctor laughed.

"Don't forget some run down motel for the night," He joined in, enjoying some harmless flirting. "I've already got you that drink, remember?"

"So you have." He agreed. "So… how about it?"

Jack looked at The Doctor for a few seconds, he looked quite hopeful. "Fine." He sighed, backing down. "Fine, we'll go."

The Doctor gave him a bright, charming smile. "Brilliant! Think Mickey would be bothered to pick us up?"

"What about the train?" Jack asked in reply, a small smile playing about his lips.

The Doctor scoffed. "What, when I can make Mickey drive all that way? Besides, the train just sounds so, _human_."

Jack raised his eyebrows. "But you like humans."

"Oh, I love them! Great race. However, I'm not human, and no matter how much I may like your kind, I don't want to be one, or live like one."

"Don't blame you."

The Doctor turned his head away, looking around the area. "Do you have a phone?"

"Upstairs."

With a nod The Doctor shot off towards the upper level, Mickey's number in his head.

While The Doctor was on the phone one by one the rest of the team filed in for work, The Doctor following close behind a few minutes later. "I'll have to tell them I'm leaving before we go." Jack sighed as The Doctor came to stand next to him, looking over at his team.

The Doctor nodded. "Well you have plenty of time, it'll be a few hours before Mickey gets here. Plus Gwen already knows, which could make it easier."

"Doubt it," Jack said. He glanced in The Doctor's direction; he was still shivering, and then stepped forwards. "Hey guy's, we need to talk." He sat himself down on the edge on Gwen's empty desk as everyone's attention turned onto him. "The Doctor and I will be leaving in a few hours, heading back to London." He paused, looking at each of them separately. His gaze rested a little longer on Gwen, who new what was coming. "And I'm not sure when I'll be back."

"What do you mean?" Tosh asked in slight confusion, "If you're only in London why wouldn't you know?"

"London for a while." Jack gave a quick look over to The Doctor. "After that I don't know where. Could be anywhere."

"Let me clarify this," Owen began, a frown on his face. "So what you're saying is that you're leaving Torchwood?"

Jack sighed, glancing down for a second before keeping his gaze on Owen. "That's not what I said - I just don't know how long I'll be gone for. Could be years, could be a week." He shrugged.

"If you do come back at all," Gwen put in.

Jack stared at her hard for a few seconds, then decided that there was no point in lying. "Yeah, if I do come back," he agreed.

"So that's it is it?" Came a sharp, snapped voice. Surprised, everyone turned their attention to Ianto - an out-burst from him really was rare. "He just comes running along one day and you immediately abandon your friends for an alien?"

Jack glared at him; he'd thought Ianto of all people would understand. That he'd realise Jack _had_ to go with The Doctor. However, before he could reply he was cut off.

"Leave it Ianto. You should know better than anyone how long Jack's been waiting for The Doctor. Whether we like it or not, he's going. And you know what? I think he should." Surprisingly, the speaker was Owen. "Hell, we all know that Jack's not from around here, and I don't mean Cardiff. He belongs wherever it is he and The Doctor goes."

Jack looked at Owen, eyebrows raised and a bemused expression on his face. For a few seconds, Owen looked slightly embarrassed for standing up for Jack like that, then put on a smug 'I'm-The-Big-Man' face to cover it up.

"So, erm," Tosh began awkwardly, "how will you be getting back to London?"

"Rose's manservant, er, boyfriend." The Doctor quickly covered his mistake, the grin on his face showing what he really did mean.

"Right." Owen said, looking amused before getting professional and down to business. "Before you go Doctor, could I take a few blood samples? I still want to figure out your condition and I'm not the type of man to leave things half done. And before you say anything, no. The results, or any mention of the blood samples, will NOT leave this hub."

The Doctor shrugged and let him begin to run the tests. "They'll be ready by tomorrow I expect." He informed them.

By the time all of the explaining and blood taking had been done, Mickey had arrived at the 'Information' Centre, the nondescript Torchwood.

"Well," The Doctor said giving everyone a cherry smile. "Off we go. Bye!" He bounded off up the stairs without another word, but Jack stayed a little longer.

He turned to his team, looking awkward. "Well, er, bye then."

Unexpectedly Gwen pulled him into a hard hug, resting her head on his shoulder. "Don't be a stranger Jack," she whispered close to his ear. She held onto him for a few more seconds before releasing him.

Tosh walked over to him next, also hugging him. "Take care Jack."

"I will," he promised, as Owen then came over.

They looked slightly unsure what to say or do, and so Jack put out a hand for him to shake, but after a few seconds hesitation Owen pulled him into a quick, brief hug. "Don't go and get yourself killed by aliens."

Jack just laughed in answer as Owen moved off to the side. Now only Ianto was left. As though sensing something the other three Torchwood members's backed off, leaving the two men to talk. "Goodbye Ianto," Jack said softly.

Ianto nodded, not quite meeting Jack's gaze. "Stay safe," he muttered, half wanting to just turn and walk away, half wanting to throw his arms around Jack.

Without warning Jack pulled the other man into a tight hug. "I'm sorry Ianto, but I have to go."

Ianto nodded against his chest, his emotions all rushing forward now Jack's arms were around him. "I understand," He whispered. "Just, just promise that you won't forget about us."

Jack chuckled, his chest moving under Ianto. "How could I ever forget you guys? Even if I wanted to, I couldn't."

"Good." Was the only reply he got.

Jack gave him one last little kiss in his hair, and pulled away.

"Later." He grinned to his now former team. "Oh, and _don't_ mess up your new position Owen." With that he turned and left, heading where The Doctor had disappeared to a few minutes earlier.

"What kept you?" An impatient Doctor complained, eager to be leaving.

"Saying goodbye." Jack returned.

"It took you 7 minutes and 16 seconds to say two words?"

"Oh, shut up."

00000

A few hours later, Mickey was sat with Jack and The Doctor is Rose's living room, the TV on, playing some old Western movie. Mickey seemed to be very involved in it, which left the other two with plenty of room to talk. And there was something Jack really wanted to discuss with him. "Hey Doc, about last night, I don't know how you feel about that, but if you want to forget it, fine, just say so and I'll never bring it up again. Otherwise, we need to talk."

The Doctor studied him for a few long seconds, glanced at Mickey, and then stood, nodding his head in the direction of the kitchen. Jack nodded back, then stood and followed the Time Lord, shutting the door behind him. Once again not missing the soft shivering of The Doctor, which hadn't stopped since the morning.

Leaning against the counter Jack folded his arms, waiting for the other man to begin the awkward conversation. After a few minutes with nothing happening Jack sighed, fed up with the silence. "Alright, lets do this another way." He pushed himself off of the counter, going to stand in front of The Doctor. "If you have feelings for me, kiss me. If not, walk away."

For a few minutes nothing happened, The Doctor seemed frozen, his expression unreadable. With a heavy sigh Jack turned on his heel, walking to the door.

The Doctor watched his retreating back for about two seconds before coming to a snap decision. Before he could leave the room The Doctor took a step forwards, grabbed a hold of Jack's arm and pulled him around. Before the immortal new what had hit him The Doctor had his lips pressed against his. Almost immediately Jack began to kiss back, pressing his body up close to the others, hands grabbing hold of The Doctor's hips, keeping him close. Just as before, there was a fire in their touches. But this one seemed different somehow; now neither had to worry about the other's reaction, this was their choice. And it felt so good, so _right_. Jack gently bit down on The Doctor's lower lip, and the Time Lord easily parted his lips, allowing Jack entry. Exploring as much as he could before he ran out of air Jack felt one of his hands wander up The Doctor's side, feeling the man's slim frame through the layers of clothing as one of The Doctor's hands found itself at the back of Jack's neck, twisting his hair around a finger and pulling Jack closer to him, crushing their lips even more closely together.

When the need for air forced them to separate, The Doctor kept his lips resting against Jack's. "That enough of an answer?" He whispered, lips brushing Jack's with each word.

Grinning against his mouth Jack locked eyes with him. "Wouldn't mind more convincing."

Happy to help out with that, The Doctor once again kissed him, both ignoring the sound of the phone when it began to ring, too involved in each other.

"Phone!" Mickey shouted from the other room.

Irritated with the interruption, they pulled away slightly. "Answer it then!" They both snapped together. Jack grinned at The Doctor, and wrapped his arms around the Time Lord's neck, kissing him with pure joy and happiness, finally abating a deep longing that had been in him for far too long.

A minute went by. "Hey, Jumping Jack Flash, it's for you, some guy called Owen."

Once again the pair pulled away from each other. Jack had half a mind to just ignore the call, but the rational part of him realised Owen wouldn't be ringing so soon without a good reason. "Better get it," he said.

The Doctor nodded, releasing Jack from his grip.

Stepping into the living room, flattening his ruffled up hair, Jack saw Mickey already sat back on the sofa, watching the movie, the phone was laid on a small side table to Jack's left. He picked it up and put it to his ear. "What's up Owen?"

"Remember those blood samples I got off of The Doctor just before you left? Well I've just finished running the tests. I've double and triple checked, I'm sorry Jack." There was a pause where Owen tried to compose himself, wishing someone else had to do this. The pause worried Jack, but he kept his cool. "…Jack, I'm sorry but… He's dying."

A/N: Big dramatic gasp!


	9. Sweet Rose

When The Doctor Needs A Doctor

First of all, I'd just like to say thank-you to everyone who has stuck with this story and continued to review, you guys are the best. And to all who have recently started reading this fic, I hope you enjoy it. I know I'm not the fastest person to update, so thanks again for not just giving up on it.

And of course, a special thanks to my beta **I Shot The Sheriff**.

Chapter 8: Sweet Rose

One and a half weeks had gone since the call Jack had received from Owen. He'd had one hell of a job trying to mount up the courage to tell The Doctor the news, but he knew that it wouldn't be fair not to tell him. The Doctor had taken the news very well, with a small snort of "Like something so petty is going to stop me!" When the phone had rung, cutting off the conversation Jack wasn't sure whether he was glad or not. Rose shouting down the phone at him for having The Doctor out 'in his condition' did seem a better choice than a conversation with The Doctor about Owen's findings. However he wasn't stupid, and knew it was something The Doctor would have to talk to someone about.

A few day's ago, Mickey had found out about The Doctor's and Jack's new relationship. Surprisingly, he took it extremely well; in fact he was grinning so much that the Doctor had took to calling him 'Joker', before adding quite pleasantly that just because he didn't like Rose as anything more than a good friend, it didn't mean she'd get back with him. With that Mickey's smile promptly dropped, he muttered a few things about The Doctor and retreated back to his flat, determined to prove him wrong.

Over the week Jack had noticed that The Doctor was still shivering, and it seemed to be getting worse. He'd also had more attacks of sudden pain, leaving him gasping for breath while Jack tried to calm him, feeling utterly useless. Owen was working on finding a cure, but with The Doctor being a Time Lord, and the fact that Torchwood had never dealt with an illness like this, he wasn't having much luck. The Doctor had to remind Jack quite a few times about his regeneration, but Jack couldn't help thinking what a waste of one that'd be, and there was a risk about leaving it to that end, when they weren't even sure about this alien illness - what if it stopped regeneration like a Dalek or Aspirin would?

Currently, the three were sat in the Tyler's living room - Mickey on the sofa, Jack on the floor with his back leaning against it, and The Doctor sat between Jack's legs, back leaned on his chest, head on his shoulder with Jack's arms resting loosely around his waist. Today was the day the two Tyler women returned. Rose's mate, Keisha, was down near the airport visiting a friend, and so she was picking them up from the airport - in fact, they would be back soon. "So what you gonna tell her, Doctor?" Mickey asked, looking away from the _War of the Worlds_ DVD playing.

"Tell who what?" He asked, not really paying him much attention as Jack's hand found its way into his hair, which he was finding soothing in the extreme.

Mickey grinned at him; he was looking forward to this. "Tell Rose about you and Flash Jack."

The Doctor suddenly sat bolt upright, a look of complete horror crossing his face at the thought of an angry teenage human girl, and not just that, but _Jackie_! What if she took it upon herself to see the situation as The Doctor breaking Rose's heart? "I need a tranquiliser gun! And a big one at that!"

000

Rose Tyler grinned as she got out of Keisha's car, looking up at her flat. She couldn't wait to see The Doctor again, and have some proper time to catch up with Jack. She hoped that The Doctor was feeling better, every time she asked Jack he said that he wasn't to bad, and when she spoke with the man-alien himself he sounded just like his normal, bouncy, talkative self.

On holiday Rose had acquired a very nice tan, and her blonde hair seemed even lighter, making the brightness in her eyes shine out, impossible for anyone to miss. With a smile as bright as her eyes Rose thanked Keisha and said goodbye, then hurriedly led Jackie up the stone steps. A few minutes later she threw open the door, beaming. Jackie followed her in a few seconds later, shutting and locking the front door behind her. "We're back!" She heard her daughter shout. "Doctor, Jack!"

Entering Rose also saw that Mickey was there. "Hey Mickey."

Mickey gave her a quick friendly hug. "Good trip?"

"Great, yeah." She nodded, and then turned to the other two men in the room. Jack got up from the floor and greeted her with a kiss on the cheek and a wink. Next was The Doctor, who was hovering around, looking happy to see her, but slightly guilty. "What have you been up to?" She used her best Jackie-voice, hands on her hips. "You bet have not ruined my room or something."

The Doctor gave her a wide smile. "Your room is fine." He walked over to her and also greeted her back with a warm hug.

"I'll get us some tea shall I?" Jackie offered, already on her way to the kitchen. "How do you take your Jack?"

"Plain, thanks."

When she had left Mickey gave Rose a big smile. "The Doctor and Jack have something to tell you." He beamed.

"Yeah, what's up?"

The Doctor looked stricken for a moment. "Er, I, erm…I'll tell you later."

"Chicken," Mickey whispered.

"Yep." He agreed, giving him a toothy grin. "Maybe I could convince Jack to tell her…"

Mickey rolled his eyes, some Time Lord he is - he can face thirty-foot monsters, but can't tell Rose about this one 'thing'. "You look great Rose." Mickey complemented, leaving The Doctor alone for now.

"Thanks." She laughed, immediately forgetting about what it was The Doctor was stumbling over his words about. "And so I should, I had to work hard for this tan."

"Well, if you call lazing around at the beach sunbathing hard, then yeah, musta been back-breaking." Jack joked, taking in the, admittedly breath-taking, tan. It looked like she'd been gone two months, not two weeks.

Just then Jackie came back in, cups on a tray. "There we go," she said, handing them around, and then taking a seat on the sofa, sipping her own drink. "So - what have you lot been up to? I heard you two ended up in Cardiff."

"Yeah, just for a night," Jack answered with a nod. "The Doc wasn't too good, and a friend of mine is a doctor there, doctor for both humans and aliens."

"A Doctor needing a doctor," Jackie laughed. "Well, he looks fine now. So, what's wrong with you?" She turned her attention from Jack to The Doctor.

He shrugged nonchalantly. "Don't think it has a name."

Earlier on in the week, The Doctor had decided not to tell Rose about 'the whole dying part', as he didn't want her scared and worrying. After all, what she doesn't know wouldn't hurt her.

Jackie just nodded again. "Well, I'm off out for a while, I promised Tracy I'd drop round when we got back, its been ages since we've had a proper talk."

"Yeah, I better be off to," Mickey added. "Meeting up with the boys for a few hours. See you later babe." Mickey gave Rose a kiss on the cheek, and then followed Jackie out.

Tongue between her teeth Rose turned back to The Doctor and Jack, remembering what Mickey had said. "So, what did you want to tell me?"

000

"You're _what!_" Rose half screeched, half yelled.

"I'm, er, with Jack." The Doctor repeated, backing off from a furious Rose as fast as he could, but not being able to see, the back of his knees hit the sofa and he fell onto it. Rose stalked up to him, and stood there, looking down on him as he tried to scramble away, but only succeeded on making it to the other end of the sofa, on his back.

For Jack's part he was stood behind Rose, out of the line of fire. Nervous about approaching her right now, and also a little (or a lot) insulted, what was wrong with being with him?

"I leave for two weeks, _two weeks!_ And you go running off with him!" She was bent down, finger in The Doctor's face, her own face red. The Doctor could just imagine the steam coming out of her nostrils.

"He has a name." Jack mumbled.

Bad idea. Rose heard, and then rounded on him. The Doctor sighed as her attention was distracted. Jack looked horrified. "_You!_ What is this for you Jack? Just another conquest? Another person to add to your ever growing list?"

"Course its not." Jack protested. "Its different."

"Different! _Different!_ Please Jack, explain to me just how this is 'different', coz as far as I know you've wanted to sleep with The Doctor since the very first time you laid eyes on him."

"Rose." Came a soft, calm voice, but at the same time seemed to demand attention. It cut through the air like a knife, stopping Rose mid rant, and causing both Rose and Jack to look over at The Doctor, who was now stood and walking over. "Do you really think I'd get with Jack just for some one-night-stand?"

"Well, no but-"

The Doctor held up a hand, once again cutting her off. "No Rose. I'm over nine hundred years old; I'm not some child who needs lessons and his hand holding. I'm with Jack because I want to be. And, to be completely honest, it's really none of your business. I'm not a position, you can't argue over me. You have no right to judge, or think we should do as you say."

By now Rose had tears in her eyes, and they were beginning to leak down her cheeks. Rose nodded. "You're right, it isn't any of my business." She sniffed, and then slipped past him, quickly walking to her room.

"Well that was a little harsh." Jack snapped when the bedroom door closed.

The Doctor studied the dark haired man for a few moments, and then sighed. "Yeah, maybe I could have been a little nicer."

"You think." Jack replied sarcastically.

The Doctor looked at Rose's door, and then back to Jack. "Think I should go talk to her?"

His answer was a snort. "After that? I don't think she'll want to see you for a while…I'll go."

The Doctor nodded; maybe it would be best if it were another human talking with her, human emotions and all that. As Jack headed off, The Doctor dropped heavily onto the sofa with a sigh. Just _once_ why couldn't anything go right?

"Rose?" Jack called, knocking on the shut door.

"Go 'way Jack." Came a soft, muffled reply.

Ignoring her request he slowly pushed open the door and stepped into the pink room. In the middle of the bed lay Rose on her stomach, quilt in a heap under her head, pillows over. Sitting down on the edge on the bed Jack watched her for a few seconds, before calling her name again. "Listen Rose, The Doctor was being a little harsh, this _is _your business, he's your friend, and I don't want to ruin that." He waited, but Rose stayed stubbornly in her position. "This isn't some fling to me. I really do want to be with him, but-" Jack paused, taking a breath, really not wanting to say the next words. This caught Rose's attention, and she shifted slightly so Jack's image was clear from the side of her eye. Now he wasn't looking at her, and she could see the trouble he was having saying this. "If, if you want I'll clear off, go back to Torchwood…"

For the longest moment Rose studied him. She new he was being truthful, if she said yes, he'd walk away know matter how much it killed him, but could she really do that? Hurt Jack and The Doctor like that? Suddenly anger rose in her, yeah, maybe he _should_ leave, it was fine between her and The Doctor before he came along. Then, as suddenly as it came, it left. Rose pulled herself up from the bed and wiped away her tears, leaving her eyes red and puffy, but she held Jack's gaze. She took a large breath. "No Jack, that's not fair. If-if you're both happy, then that's it, The Doctor deserves some happiness after all these years. He was right, I shouldn't have said those things, I'm sorry. He's not something to be owned, and he can make his own choices."

Jack continued to hold her gaze for another few seconds. "Thank you."

She gave him a watery smile. "Go on then, get, I need some sleep, planes do that to you."

Taking the hint Jack stood, looked over her for a few seconds, and then left. He new that she was lying when she said those things, maybe not completely, after all Jack believed its how Rose _wanted_ to see the situation, but she just couldn't bring herself to.

"Is she okay?" The Doctor asked quietly as Jack came back.

He nodded. "Yeah, she's gone to sleep now."

"Oh, OK." The Doctor said, lack of anything else to say. Jack sat down next to him and they both stayed in silence. After a few minutes The Doctor sighed, and leaned his head against Jack's shoulder. "I suppose it could have been worse."

"Yeah?" Jack asked, manoeuvring The Doctor more into his arms.

"Yeah." The Time Lord nodded. "Jackie could have been here."

Jack chuckled. "I don't know, she didn't seem that bad to me."

The Doctor turned his head, so he was looking up at Jack's face. "That's because you didn't 'kidnap' her daughter for a year."

"True." Jack agreed, kissing his exposed neck. "I guess that would cause some conflict."

000

That night The Doctor lay on the bed, not needing to sleep and even if he did he wasn't sure he'd be able to. He glanced to his left, at Jack's sleeping figure, his hair falling about his face. Despite Jack's nature, The Doctor had never had sex with him. The thing about species that look the same, but are completely different, is that they tend to forget at times. All races had different wants, views, and things affected them in a different way's than they would affect another species. For humans, sex could just be for fun, or for two people to become closer, to show love and trust. But for a Time Lord, it was more than just that; in fact not that many Gallifreyan's bothered much with sexual intercourse. If a Time Lord is to have sex, or make love, than they create a bond with that person. It doesn't mean that you have to stay with them, but you feel their feelings, you see into their life, and they your own. The Doctor wasn't sure that was what he wanted with Jack, or at least not yet.

Rose was also on his mind. Despite what he had said he was worried for her - well, maybe not worry wasn't the right word, but concerned.

With a sigh The Doctor got up, being careful not to wake Jack. He left the room, shutting the door quietly.

000

With a sigh Rose stood up. For the past few hours she'd just been laying there, unable to sleep. Deciding to brew some tea she left the room, taking care to be quiet as she passed her mum's room; after all, it must be about 2am. As she was walking to the kitchen she saw The Doctor on the sofa, his back to her. She froze for a few seconds, looking at the back of his head. Maybe she should just go, back to bed, pretend she was never there. Most likely The Doctor already knew she was there anyway, feeling slightly nervous she made her way over, gingerly taking a seat next to him. "Hey."

Turning his head to look at her, The Doctor gave her a smile back. "Rose," he said. "Look, I'm sorry about what I said, but most of it _is_ true."

Rose waved him off. "No, don't apologise, if anyone should be saying sorry it's me. It's just, well, oh I don't know." She glanced down at her feet. "I just always thought you and me, ya no? Like, we had something."

The Doctor stayed silent, just looking ahead.

"Why Jack?" She wanted to know.

For a few seconds he paused, thinking about the reasons. "He's different from all of the other people I've ever travelled with. He's used to aliens and time travel, unusual things don't faze him, and he can do job whether easy or life threatening without complaint. I suppose I also like the way he sees things, laid back, takes the universe as it comes at him. When things go wrong he came make a joke about it. If we have some twelve-foot monster with tusks and sixteen red eyes growling at us he doesn't freak out – in fact he'd probably just flirt with it… He's immortal you know."

"What?" Rose asked, surprise showing on her face.

"Yeah," The Doctor nodded with a smile. "Kill him and he just gets back up, kill him again and he'd be back on his feet a minute later."

"H-how?"

"…You."

With a mixture of shock and confusion Rose looked at him. "What do you mean me? I didn't do anything."

"Satellite Five, or the Game Station, whatever you want to call it. When you were the Bad Wolf, Jack had just died, and you brought him back. 'I give life'. Can you remember? _You_ made sure that he lived. I didn't even know until Jack came down."

"What, so he'll like, never die?"

"Well, he might age very slowly, but if so then that'll be the only thing that'll end him." The Doctor said, not to sure about it himself, it wasn't anything that had happened before. It wasn't even supposed to happen, but it did, and The Doctor was glad about that.

Rose nodded, thinking about it. "So you won't have to be lonely anymore." She said quietly.

"Oh, I was never really lonely was I, always had you around to make great company." He grinned.

Rose gave him a smile. "So I really brought someone back from the dead."

"Yep." He then frowned. "Still not sure how _exactly_, in theory it's quite simple, but to actually put that power into a person…"

"Well." Rose smiled with a soft laugh, moving a peace of hair from her face. "I'm just that good aren't I?" She joked.

"Yeah, you are," he said seriously. "You're brilliant."

000

The next morning everyone seemed to be up early, even Rose who hadn't had much sleep. By seven o clock Jackie was making breakfast, Rose had gone over to see Mickey, Jack was in the shower and The Doctor was flicking through the morning paper, looking bored, glasses pushed up high on his nose.

"Do you actually need them, or are they for show to make you look more intelligent?" Jack asked as he walked in, hair still damp from his shower.

"I don't need to look intelligent, I already am." The Doctor replied, folding the paper and putting it down before removing his glasses and pocketing them. He stood and made his way over to Jack as the front door opened and Rose came back in, at the exact time Jackie shouted breakfast was out.

"Hey," Rose greeted. "Mickey's coming round later. Be nice, yeah?"

The Doctor pulled a fake hurt face. "Aren't I always?"

"Food!" Jackie shouted out again from the kitchen.

As Rose stepped into the kitchen The Doctor reached Jack. "Come on then." He kissed Jack and then took his hand, following Rose.

"Come on," Jackie pestered them, "you ain't got all day you know, it'll be cold, I didn't stand there cooking for it to go to waste." She looked over to them, and noticed there joint hands. "What are you doin'?"

For one stupid minute both men had forgotten about Jackie not knowing, or perhaps that same sex relationships weren't as common in the 21st Century. "They're together mum." Rose put in before they could say anything.

Jackie looked from Jack and The Doctor to Rose, and then back at The Doctor. "Well, he's a time travelling alien, he goes an' changes his face, and that's all fine, but I gotta say, I never saw that one comin'."

Rose rolled her eyes and shoved a large peace of bacon in her mouth. "Just leave it yeah?" She mumbled between chewing.

"Er, manners," Jackie warned her. "Don't talk with your mouth full."

Rose rolled her eyes but didn't respond.

After they'd all eaten Rose insisted that they all go out, she'd needed a new pair of trainers for a while now, after all she didn't want to be running for her life when her shoes break, which causes her to trip and she ends up as dinner. She'd already deemed The Doctor well enough for a shopping trip; after all he wasn't throwing up all over the place or anything of the sort. They met up with Mickey, and headed further into central London, taking the bus.

Half an hour later Rose and Jackie were sat on a seat, dozens of boxes full of shoes surrounding them, oohing and aahing over each of them, talking much too fast for any of their male companions could keep up with, even The Doctor who was the most talkative person any of them new.

"Ooh, Rose darling, look at those gorgeous pink high heels, they're in your size see?" Jackie pointed to a box a few feet away as Rose was slipping on a pair of flip-flops.

"This is gonna take a while," Mickey sighed, yawning from boredom already.

The Doctor nodded and turned to look at Jack, but he was wondering off to another ail. "Jack?"

A few seconds later he returned, a grin on his face. He threw something at The Doctor, who caught it on reflex. With a frown he looked at what it was, a pair of red shoes, with very thin, large heels. He gave Jack a confused look. Jack's grin just widened. "Well, you dream about it, thought you might like to try them on for size."

The Doctor scowled at him, throwing the shoes back at him, a little more forceful than necessary. Laughing, Jack snatched them out of the air, and just left them on the nearest shelf.

"What dream is that?" Mickey asked in interest, but shut up with the dark look he received from The Doctor.

"I knew there was a reason I shouldn't have told you," The Doctor said to Jack as he walked back over.

Jack gave him a light, friendly shove on his arm, and noticed when he flinched slightly. "Oh, please don't tell me that hurt," Jack raised his eyebrows, looking over the Time Lord.

"No." He shook his head. "I just felt… Never mind, I'm fine."

"Sure?" Jack asked in concern.

"Maybe some air would help." Mickey suggested.

The Doctor waved them off. "Nah, really, I'm fine." He insisted as he went pale, colour flooding from his cheeks.

"Listen, Doc-" But Jack was cut of when The Doctor felt his knees go weak and he lost his balance. He grabbed onto Jack's t-shirt as he leaned over heaving, as blood poured from his mouth. "_Shit!_" Jack cursed, grabbing him securely in his arms as The Doctor continued to throw up blood.

By now everyone in the shop was aware of what was happening and Rose and Jackie jumped from their seats, leaving the shoes as they rushed over. "Oh my God, Doctor!" Rose yelled. "We need to get him out if here!"

"I'll ring an ambulance," Mickey said, pulling out his mobile.

"No!" Rose quickly stopped him. "It's to risky, if anyone were to find out what he is."

"The TARDIS." The Doctor wheezed, having finished throwing up, but now coughing violently, a few specks of blood flying out as he did.

The stunned costumers and shop workers scrambled out of the way as the group ran out, Jack carrying The Doctor in his arms.

Being the first out of the shop Jackie hailed down a taxi, which luckily only took a few seconds. "Everyone get in!" She urged. Rose climbed into the backseat and gently helped The Doctor as Jack placed him in, before following himself. Mickey squeezed in after them and Jackie got in the front.

"There's too many people." The cab driver spoke with a plain voice.

Jackie glared at him. "Can't you see this is an emergency? Now MOVE IT!"

000

Twenty minutes later The Doctor was laid asleep in the TARDIS's med bay, everyone hovering over him. They'd given him the treatment the TARDIS had delivered them, and now just had to wait. His face was getting more colour in it slowly, and his heart's seemed fine.

"Maybe we should just leave him to rest." Jackie said, looking over him.

"Yeah." Rose agreed, but nobody moved.

In his sleep The Doctor shifted slightly and mumbled something too quietly for them to hear, but it sounded oddly like few words from a song, in some strange language.

With a sigh Rose looked down, and noticed that she was wearing a pair of trainers from the shop. For a few seconds she conceded leaving it, but she was an honest person. "I'll have to take these back, or go pay for them." She declared, pointing at them. "Hey look, here's a price tag, £40."

This caused Jackie to also look at her own feet, she to had on a pair of the shops shoes. "Don't worry sweetheart, you stay here with The Doctor, I'll go and pay for them, just give me the label, I have to pay for mine to anyway."

"Thanks." Rose smiled, doing as her mum asked.

After Jackie had left Rose and Mickey headed to the TARDIS's kitchen to get a drink, leaving Jack alone with The Doctor.

In a seat next to the bed Jack had The Doctor's hand in his, stroking it with light touches. He lent over and brushed a light kiss over his lips. "Jack?" Came a mumbled whisper as The Doctor began to stir.

"Yeah, it's me," he smiled.

The Doctor's eyes fluttered open, and he gave Jack a small smile in return, sitting up.

"How are you feeling?"

"I'm okay, just a little dizzy," he told him sincerely.

Jack shook his head. "You're getting worse Doctor."

The Doctor sighed heavily. "Yeah, I guess I am."

"Is there nothing we can do?" Jack asked desperately. "You can't go on like this."

"Maybe there is," The Doctor said, and then sat quietly for a few seconds, thinking. "There's bound to be a cure that the Devinea have. The only problem is that I don't think they'd like to share, or that they'd be too pleased at seeing me again."

"We need to try," Jack said stubbornly. "Maybe if I go?"

"No," The Doctor immediately snapped. "I'm not having you ending up like this to. I don't care if you're immortal, you're not doing it."

Jack glared at him. "Well what then! We just leave you to die! What if you don't regenerate?"

The Doctor gave him a soft smile; he cupped Jack's face in his hands and kissed him deeply. "We'll all go." He promised, pulling back slightly. After another quick kiss he jumped to his feet, looking as energized as always, but Jack noticed dark rings under his eyes, and the way he faulted just slightly when his feet touched the ground.

As they were walking down one of the endless corridors they bumped into Rose and Mickey.

"Doctor," Rose said, surprised to see him up. "We were just coming to see you."

The Doctor smiled at them. "Well, come on, you can see me in the control room."

"We're going somewhere?" Mickey asked, confused. "But your ill."

"So I am," The Doctor nodded. "And we're off somewhere to get a cure."

Rose brightened at this news at once. "Great, come on then."

"So why didn't we do this before?" Mickey continued to question as they reached the console room.

"Excellent question," The Doctor beamed. "Because it's going to be dangerous. Last time I went there, some what, ooh, an odd hundred and twenty years ago, there was a bit of dispute between the two higher civilisations, and neither is known to give up on an argument, may still be going on, and they can get a little nasty."

"What two civilisations are they then?" Rose questioned in interest.

"Well, the Devinea for one. The other is the Locque."

"Devinea?" Rose stopped in her tracks. "The Devinea who put you in this state to begin with?"

"Yep, those exact Devinea." The Doctor continued to smile.

"Hang on, you just said you haven't been to their planet for a hundred and twenty years." Mickey said as The Doctor walked over to the main controls. "So how did they attack you?"

"Ship, Mickey. I was on their ship." He fiddled with a few buttons. "What's wrong with her?"

"What's up?" Jack asked, walking up to The Doctor.

"She won't move." He frowned. "Something must be wrong."

Rose and Mickey also came over. "How long will it take to fix it?" Rose asked, peering at all of the various wires and buttons and leavers.

The Doctor shrugged. "Depends how long it takes to realise what's wrong. Still, shouldn't be to long…Okay, new plan, fix the TARDIS, and _then_ we're off. Give us a hand will you Jack?"

They immediately got to work as Rose sighed, going to find a magazine to read while waiting, and Mickey stayed hovering about, trying to learn how the TARDIS worked.

"Come on girl," The Doctor cooed. "Help us out with this."

A low buzzing came from the ship and The Doctor grinned. "Right! Good news, this should only be a few hours, then we're off."

-

A/N: Once again, sorry for the wait.

Eww, throwing up blood, I know from experience how horrible that it :P


	10. Hearts of a Time Lord, Pt 1

When The Doctor Needs A Doctor

**Been a while huh? Well, I'm back now and ready to write! Sorry for the extremely long wait.**

When The Doctor Needs A Doctor

Chapter 9: Hearts of a Time Lord, Part One

Despite what The Doctor had said a few hours had gone by and he and Jack were still working on the TARDIS. Rose and Mickey had both gone home to say goodbye to Jackie and get some fresh clothes.

Tinkering around with the TARDIS wires Jack was beginning to get bored, no matter what The Doctor said he still wasn't convinced that they were getting anywhere. But then again what did he know about TARDIS's?

"I think she's being awkward on purpose." The Doctor declared, falling back from his crouched position into a sitting one. "Can you find _any_ dislodged cables Jack?"

"Nope, are you sure that's what the problem is?" He asked, sounding quite doubtful.

The Doctor gave a sight shrug. "I'm just going by what she said." He got up and gave Jack a hand, pulling him up from under the floor. "Well come on, we still have four more rooms to check."

"How wonderful." Jack muttered sarcastically. "Why can't she just _tell_ _you _were the problem is?"

"Must be in a mood." He shrugged.

"Yeah, but she knows that your ill and need to get to this place." But the Doctor didn't here as he'd already set off down the corridor. With a slight shake of his head Jack raced after him.

"Oh, oh here we are! My beauty!" The Doctor shouted out before Jack had even entered the room. When he did step in it was to see the Doctor with his glasses already on, sonic screwdriver between his teeth, fiddling with something Jack couldn't see from where he was stood. "Mhphph." He motioned at Jack, voice muffled due to the screwdriver.

"What?" Jack asked.

The Doctor rolled his eyes and gave Jack a pointed look. "Mhphph." Getting a blank look from the other man, The Doctor rolled his eyes once again, and waved him over. As soon as Jack was next to him The Doctor took his hand, and guided it to hold two rather large wires in place together. He removed his sonic screwdriver from his mouth, rubbed off a bit of saliva from it onto his jacket sleeve, and then changed the setting. Jack watched as he put it to the wires, fusing them together. "Excellent, you can let go now Jack."

"So that's it? Can we get going now?" Jack asked, letting the wire fall from his hand.

"Nope, still have one hundred and eight more wires to go." The Doctor replied cheerfully.

"Oh, how fun." Said a sarcastic Jack.

Not at all put off, The Doctor gave him a quick kiss and darted to the other side of the room.

0000

"So, The Doctor and Jack huh?" Mickey said, sat across from Rose at the kitchen table an hour later, back in the TARDIS.

"I guess." She said, shoving a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth, a slight frown on her pretty face.

Mickey shifted slightly in his seat. "So, er, I guess it's different for you now yeah? No more just you and him."

With a heavy sigh, Rose slouched in her chair. "Yeah, I suppose."

Mickey paused for a few seconds, and ran a hand over the back of his head. "Well, there's always gonna you and me ain't there? I sure ain't gonna run off with no bloke!"

Rose gave a small giggle and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "Well, he didn't run _off_, he just ran in the wrong direction."

"The direction which wasn't you?" Mickey said before he could stop himself. He quickly closed his mouth, maybe that wasn't the right thing to say just now.

A few seconds of silents went by, and then Rose nodded. "Yeah, the direction that wasn't me."

With a frown, Mickey looked down. He wanted it to be him and her, but he didn't no how to word it to her, after all, she had no problem running off with The Doctor the fist time round, maybe she just wasn't into him as much as he first thought. He watched her as she brought her feet up onto her chair, keens against her chest as she rested her head on them, not looking at Mickey. "I'll er, go see how their getting on fixing the TARDIS." He declared, then stood and left the room.

Lifting her head from her knees, Rose watched him go, remembering what it was like when it was just him and her, when they'd meet up on her lunch hour from work, go for something to eat. They'd been so good together, Mickey had always been easy to talk to, fun to be around, even if he wasn't as brave as The Doctor. The Doctor, Rose groaned as he came into her head, as she remembered all the fun they'd shared, from eating chips to saving the world. She was happy for The Doctor and Jack, she really was, The Doctor defiantly deserved someone, and if that someone was Jack rather than her, then so be it. However, she couldn't help but be a least a tiny bit jealous. Giving another loud groan she rested her head back onto her knees.

00000

Half an hour later found Jack and The Doctor in the consol room, The Doctor looking rather worn out and tired. He had to shake his head every few minutes to try to rid himself of a growing dizzy spell, and blink more often as the back of his eyes began to ache. He'd put his glasses on to try to help with that, but it did nothing, not that he actually needed glasses anyway.

As he and Jack ran around the consol, setting their destination, he was moving slower than normal, it wasn't enough of a change to catch a humans attention, but a feeling of sluggishness was slowly working its way threw his body, and he felt drained, almost burnt out of energy. Every move was exhausting. Be he tried his best to ignore it, he didn't want his human companions worrying more than they already were, or Rose catching on that there was more to this illness than anyone's told her. If he just hangs on a few more hours, The Doctor told himself, then he'll be fine, right back to normal, and the tiredness will just be an unpleasant memory.

With the final pull of the handbrake the TARDIS roared into motion, and The Doctor and Jack had to grab a hold of a conveniently placed rail which wasn't there moments before to stay upright. After a few seconds, the TARDIS evened out, moving into a steadier flight threw the vortex. Jack gave a small chuckle as the TARDIS beeped happily; it was good to be home. Now being able to walk without ending up on his ass, Jack made his way to stand with The Doctor. With a bright smile on his face, The Doctor threw his arms around Jack in an enthusiastic hug. Pulling at his waist Jack held him against himself and ran a hand down his cheek. A few silent seconds went by, then The Doctor closed the gap between there lips. The hand that lay on The Doctor's cheek quickly moved to the back of his head, holding the Time Lord close to the immortal. Jack's arms gripped tighter around the alien as The Doctor ran his hands up under Jack's shirt. Jack let out a tiny moan as he felt the cool skin of The Doctor's hands against his warm stomach and up to his chest. He felt his back hit a wall, not quite sure when they had moved. A low sound that sounded oddly like a mix between a growl and purr came from the Time Lord, loving the sound, Jack thrust forwards against The Doctor, rubbing their growing erections together. The Doctor suppressed a moan at the feelings he's be so foreign to for much to long, Jack was kissing him so hard it was almost like the other man's tongue was fucking his mouth, and every time Jack thrust forwards he wanted to just tear both their clothes off. "Jack." He muttered against the immortals lips; vaguely wondering if he'd ever sounded that needy before in all the nine hundred plus years. "Jack, please." And he wasn't even sure what he was asking for, but it seemed Jack new. The hand at the back of The Doctor's head travelled down his back and came to rest on his arse, Jack's other hand running down his front. The Doctor hitched a breath when Jack's hand came in contact with the bulge in his pants.

A throat was cleared off to the side.

There was a pause, as Jack and The Doctor just stirred at each other for a moment; and the turned their heads as one to find Mickey looking rather embarrassed standing by the corridor. "Hey, I er, was just wondering if you'd fixed the TARDIS yet?" He said hurriedly, looking close to running off.

"Yep." The Doctor nodded, then noticed neither his nor Jack's hands had moved from each other. With a slightly red face The Doctor stepped away from Jack. "Better get to moving us huh?" And with that he scurried over to the consol, flicking switches, pulling leavers and turning dials. He didn't look up at either human.

Sending Mickey a disgruntled look for having picked that moment to enter the room, Jack slouched off. He arrived a few minutes later in the kitchen, where he found Rose shovelling ice cream down her. "Hey Rosie."

Having not seen him, Rose jumped in her seat and snapped her head round. "Oh, hey Jack. How's it going with the TARDIS?"

"All fixed." Jack said, taking the seat Mickey occupied before. "The Doc's just setting off now."

Rose nodded. "Well, the sooner we get there and get him well again, the better."

They fell into silent's for the next few minutes, something which Jack wasn't used to, he liked noise, things going on around him, having people's attention. "So, you ok?"

Once again, Rose nodded. "Yeah, never better, you?"

"Fine."

Jack frowned inwardly, the conversation seemed to strained, like they hardly even new each other. He opened his mouth to try and strike up a conversation of some kind, but Rose beat him to it. "Can I ask you something, and you promise to be completely truthful?"

"Of course." Jack said, sounding slightly insulted that she'd think he'd lie to her.

"The Doctor. Honestly, what are your fist thoughts when you hear his name?"

"I don't know," Jack frowned. "Kinda like when you see something which you adore, but aren't sure if you should get close. Or a puzzle which your not sure how to make the picture, even if you have all the pieces. There's something about him, which draws you in, yet pushes you away at the same time. Like, I don't know. Like he's sure about everything but himself. There's something about him that shines brighter than anything, but also a darkness hidden away somewhere. For all the wrongs he right's, he's damaged himself, and is unable to save himself, so he saves the universe instead. It's hard to explain." Jack shrugged.

Rose smiled and nodded. "Thanks, for telling me the truth. I think I'd have thought of kicking you off the ship if you went off about how amazing, surreal and perfect he is."

Jack gave a little laugh. "I think _I'd_ throw myself off the ship if I ever became that sappy with anyone. As much as I love the guy, he _is_ a bit of a nut job."

Rose laughed along with him for a while. "Do you really love him though? Like, _really_."

"How could I not?"

"…You could be a Dalek." Both of them laughed again. Back to the easy flow.

0000

"Right, welcome to the planet Leeva, home to the Locque and Devinea." The Doctor grinned, pushed open the doors of the TARDIS and stepping out, not bothering to check the area for any dangers first. The other's followed him out, and The Doctor continued to grin, looking over the glum landscape. The grass was a dull sickly green, moist to the touch and thick. The sky was a boring shade of blue, with smoke coloured clouds as thick as smog. There was no sigh of trees or civilisation in any direction, just many swamps all around them.

"Well, isn't this place charming." Rose muttered sarcastically.

The Doctor took another step forwards, and his foot sunk into muddy ground with a squish. "Lovely." He mumbled to himself.

"Which way?" Mickey asked.

"If ever in doubt, follow your nose." The Doctor grinned, then set of in the direction he was facing, walking slower than usual due to the muddy ground. With a shrug, the others followed him, watching carefully where they trod.

It took almost two hours before they could see the swamps beginning to thin out and a forest come into sight in the distance. "Hey, did you just see that?!" Rose said suddenly, pointing to her right, into the dark water of a large swamp.

"What was it?" Mickey questioned, going to her side and peering over to see for himself. The Doctor and Jack soon came over to join them to.

"I'm not sure, some sort of dark shadow." Rose shrugged, still looking into the murky water, but it was to dark to really see anything.

"Could have just been a trick of the light." Jack suggested, not seeing anything himself.

"Or maybe not." The Doctor muttered. He looked up from the swamp towards the forest. "Come on, we'd better hurry, but keep your eyes open."

The group nodded and set off again, scanning the area around them as they walked.

Five minutes had passed and no life forms had been sighted. They had come to a small lake, but something seemed different about it. Unlike the swamps around it, the water was clearer, still murky, but not as bad. Although the bed underneath wasn't visible, they could see deeper in, and so a faint light was visible. It seemed to be a tunnel, leading to who knows where. However, it wasn't so much the tunnel that caught their attention, more the body on the entrance floor of it. It was a giant spider on its back, twenty-two hairy legs curled up in a fatal position. However, it was nowhere near as large as The Doctor had described; which made the dead Devinea only a child. "C'mon." The Doctor said gravely after a few minutes. They turned to go, but before they could take a step a huge shape jumped from the water, splashing them all and causing them to lose their balance. As one, the group fell into the lake.

Mickey gave a short yell of surprise as he fell, but was quickly cut off as he broke the water's surface and went under, his mouth filling with dirty water. He sank down before his senses came back to him. He kept his mouth tight shut, but he had no breath, just water in it. He tried to kick up, back to the surface, but his foot was trapped in something. He looked down, and could just make out some sort of reddish weeds tangled around his left foot, threw the mucky water. Trying not to panic, he reached down and desperately tried to remove the weeds. He thought with them as he began to feel dizzy; he needed air and fast. He tried tugging with his leg and hands, yanking as hard as he could. The weeds began to loosen! Filled with a new hope, Mickey pulled as hard as he could, and the plant snapped. Wasting no time he swam upwards as fast as he could, eyes strained and lungs painful in his chest. A few seconds later his head broke he surface, and he took a huge gulp of breath, spitting out the water. Gasping he looked around when he heard a frightened shout from The Doctor.

"No! Don't you dare!"

Mickey looked around, momentary confused due to the lack of oxygen, but he soon came to his senses when he looked over to the lake's bank. There were three creatures; each must have been around seven foot tall. Lizard like, stood on two muscular legs with dark scaled skin, small slanted vibrant yellow eyes with small slits for pupils. Their arms were covered in some sort of grey armour, like what you'd expect to see knights wearing hundreds of years ago, as were their knees. In one hand they held some sort of weapon, a gun like object that ended in a spear shape. But what really worried Mickey was that two of the three held Jack and Rose, guns to their heads.

"Who are you?" The hostage free one hissed, but there was something different about this one, two red streaks, running down from each eye, not ending until it got to his nose. _'The leader,'_ Mickey thought to himself.

"We're not here to cause trouble." The Doctor assured hurriedly, eyes locked on Jack and Rose. "I'm The Doctor, I promise, we're just passing threw."

The leader sneered. "You were heading towards Devinea territory! They are the enemy of the Locque! You are spies."

"No, no we're not. We have nothing to do with the war. Please, let them go and I'll tell you whatever you need to know, I swear." The Doctor moved his eyes to the head Locque and edged forwards, hands up to show he meant no harm.

"Come any closer and we'll blow off their heads." The leader hissed angrily. The Doctor stopped in his tacks.

In the lake, Mickey quickly swam over and climbed out, rushing to join The Doctor. "We're not doing nothing, honest!" He called out. "We're just hear for help, we need to find the Devinea an-"

But he was cut off be an aggressive hiss. "So you admit to working for the enemy!"

The Doctor groaned; trust Mickey the Idiot to start blurting things out. "No. We're not working for them! Look, I met them a while back and I got ill, we're only hear to find a cure, then we'll be gone, I promise."

But the Locque weren't listening, the leader brought up his gun to The Doctor's level. Seeing what was about to happen, The Doctor pulled out his Sonic Screwdriver. He pressed the button and a large sound wave admitted. A horrid screeching filled the air and everyone yelled and covered their ears, or in the case of the Locque, the place where their ears would be if not covered by a layer of scales. "Run!" The Doctor shouted, reaching for Rose and Jack, but before he could grab their hands, the Locque dived to the side, still holding them, right into the lake. In a matter of seconds they had disappeared through the tunnel.

"NO!" The Doctor screamed, running to the edge of the lake. "Come back!" He looked ready to jump in after them, and Mickey quickly grabbed a hold of him. "Get off me!" The Time Lord tried to break Mickey's grip, but he stayed fast, holding on tightly.

"Jumping in there won't do them any good." He gasped out from the strain of holding back the taller man. He grunted when an elbow connected with his stomach. "We've got to find another way to help them."

After a few seconds, The Doctor stopped struggling and Mickey's grip relaxed. The Time Lord stayed looking into the water, panting heavily, face filled with fury and his ancient eyes dark and icy. "We'll get them back, and the Locque will regret ever taking them." He sneered quietly; voice full of promise and venom.


End file.
